Keto, Paleo, and the Science of Diet (with licensed nutritionist Leah McGrath)

the thinking atheist it's not a person an idea the population of atheists this country is going through the room rejecting faith challenging this sacred if I tell the truth it's because I tell the truth not because I put my hand on a book and made a wish and working together for a more rational world take the risk of thinking for yourself much more happiness confusion wisdom will come to you that way assume nothing and start thinking this is the thinking atheist podcast hosted by Sanders everybody's dealing with these weird times at a different way clever idea and a little ray of sunshine in our neighborhood there was a family a young student that posted on the neighborhood Facebook page that their daughter to spread some lights and color and joy and happiness painted a rainbow and taped it inside the window sort of facing outside of it taped it on the interior of one of their picture windows and said you know everybody in the neighborhood ought to do this and I guess she got the idea from someone else who had been doing it their neighborhoods around the country perhaps around the world who are making rainbows and they're sticking them in the windows of their houses so the people who walk or drive by will just get a little good cheer I just thought that was a great idea and so we saw that the neighbors across the street and the neighbors off to our East had done it and we wanted in on that so Natalie and I got together and she had all this crafting stuff she uses for the grandkid and we took some construction paper and we sat in there with our scissors and our tape and all of these other things and we created a rainbow when we taped it to the front window and so I was out walking Linus and I was just counting the rainbows there's one two five seven ten I counted ten rainbows on one walk around the block it's just people trying to be optimistic in some way to encourage each other sort of relates to the show we did last week you know people are good most people are good people want goodness they want to help each other they want to deal they want to they just want it all to pass and we'll all hang together and support each other as best we can until it's all over somebody did post a meme and that made me laugh they asked when the apocalypse portion of the crisis is gonna start one of the funnier ones I saw had this guy drawn in pencil and he's poking a stick at one kovat 19 virus and he said come on make zombies I just thought my idea I get that that's my kind of humor humor being a way to deal with these crazy times I think most of us staying close to home if I may and I'm just saying this absolutely seriously it is a really good time to engage and get informed right if we're gonna be locked in let's use the time and let's get educated and you can do so with one of my favorite supporters of this show ever the great courses plus specifically out of the thousands of lectures thousands of options you can stream on your schedule via your phone your 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Seth today we are directing our rational brains toward the subject of health claims out there about health and nutrition and food and diets and how to navigate through the noise get a science-based understanding of genuine health and wellness my guest Leah McGrath has been on this show before she was on our Wu trician episode a few years ago she's been a registered dietitian since 1996 she was the chief of clinical Dietetics for the military in South Carolina before she joined the South Carolina Department of Public Health she's now a corporate dietitian she writes and speaks frequently for lifestyle publications and health publications and universities like Clemson and Georgia State and others she's a scientific adviser for the American Council on science and health and she's a refreshing voice of good scientific sense in a world loaded with anti science whoo she joins us for a conversation today Leah McGrath great to have you thanks for coming yeah thanks thanks for inviting me nice talk to you again give me the definition of a registered dietitian nutritionist versus hi I'm a health expert right it's because there's a lot of health quote unquote experts out there can you tell me what you do sure so a registered dietitian nutritionist is actually a protected title in the United States so it means when you see Rd or Rd and it means that this person has gone through a course of study which includes at the very minimum an undergraduate degree and most likely a master's degree they have to have been accepted to an internship program which is a very competitive process only about 50% of people who apply get accepted it's a twelve hundred hour internship it goes through different kind of competency areas like clinical Dietetics and Food Service administrative public health entrepreneurship different things depending on the internship program then they have to pass a nationally administered Board Exam which is about a four hour exam and then we have to keep up continuing education credit every year is five year intervals to maintain our credentials Jesus liked a bar yeah I am I mean yeah it is a little it's probably more than most people realize and you know as you mentioned some people who call themselves a health coach or a wellness coach or just a nutritionist they could have none of that experience or education or some of it but they can't call themselves the registered dietician and unless in fact they are registered with the Commission on Dietetic registration I want to start with keto because Natalie and I sort of looked in the mirror back in the fall of last year and realized we'd gotten a bit fluffy okay and so we saw a friend of ours who'd gone through a program that was amazing like they lost a ton of weight it's kind of a modified keto thing where you limit your carbs extremely limit your carbs and then we didn't do like the keto where you eat all the fat and you know all the cheese and the casseroles with bacon grease and stuff like that you can just eat essentially all the time and just limit your carbs it was really like lean proteins and whatnot so I'm looking at the diet now we're both about thirty five pounds down and I'm like was it the keto was it ketosis that caused us to lose or was it the fact that we were on a limited calorie intake eating lean proteins and you know fewer sugars and I look at keto and I'm like is this who was it just calories in calories out so tell me about keto is it real well you know yeah it's definitely a real diet one of the things you learn about when you're a dietitian is was called the ketosis diet which was actually a diet that was designed for children with epilepsy seizure disorders and they found that a diet that was high in fat very low in carbohydrates and moderate amount of protein was successful in combination with medications in reducing seizures for these children so that's been around for a long time then I guess probably a year or two ago we saw this sort of resurgence of what is called the keto diet and you know no offense to use that but having been a dietitian for 25 years I see a lot of what I think of as versions of the Atkins diet which is some version of the diet that's cutting carbohydrates and oftentimes those are very successful at least with immediate results because when you cut carbohydrates you lose fluid and you tend to lose weight fairly quickly at least initially so a lot of people tell me that they're doing the keto diet when you kind of talk to people a little bit more they're actually probably more in your what the camp that you're describing that's like people who have cut down on their carbohydrates maybe really cut out a lot of sugar sweetened beverages candy cookies cake sweetie wrestler sodas snacking kind of snack food and kind of turning more towards lean proteins more non starchy vegetables and hopefully they're exercising along with that but I don't know were you exercising that a little bit but you know at my age no it's a little harder to get up out of the chair but yeah we were doing a little bit but I was amazed at how much diet made the difference for us you know it used to because I have a sweet tooth I love sweet things and so when I cut out sugar and started doing like Splenda or whatever instead and and cut down on carbs in general I wasn't going out for ice cream at night you know I changed my habits a little bit I noticed that I began first of all to crave most of those foods less I mean I can still throw down on some sugar if it's offered to me but it I don't know it changed how I view food it changed even how food tasted is that common no and that's a great thing I think what we're talking about is situation a situation that many people encounter where you know you are adopting maybe some better habits you know focusing more on lean sources of protein and vegetables instead of grabbing those high caloric high sugar items that are immediately very satisfying but in the long run don't really do your health at you guys so changing those habits is a really good thing you start to find that you don't need the same level of sweet to be satisfied or maybe you need little or no sweeten things to be satisfied is it healthy to stay in ketosis first of all can you explain ketosis for the uninitiated yeah is it healthy to remain in that state for a length of time no it's really not too healthy to remain in that state for a long extended period of time what you're doing is you're trying to push your body to a point where there it's burning off the fat stores that's really like in a very basic way of explaining it a lot of people would say oh you know I did I tested for ketones in my urine and I there were ketones so I must be in ketosis well those urine tests on the little strips that people are using are not especially accurate and the only really legitimate way to test for ketosis is with blood tests and most people aren't doing that type of testing and you're gonna move in and out of ketosis throughout the day so but long stretches of time when you're pushing your body to that point there can be negative effects like you can see hydration they talked about the keto flu where you have like sort of like almost like a brain fog you feel like you have a clue you're a key you're irritable your body loves carbohydrates it doesn't I'm not saying that it loves sugar necessarily but it loves carbohydrates that can be broken down into sugars that's what your brain loves what that's what your muscles love so a long term diet that would be classified the true keto diet could potentially be harmful for people the problem is we don't have a lot of long-term studies because most the time people can't stick with it for long periods of time and that's the issue with any kind of diet you talked about you know was it just that you were cutting calories yes it probably was so any kind of diet what studies thing to show is that there are a lot of different diets out there there's you know moderate amounts of carbohydrates and moderate protein moderate fat there's high carbohydrate low fat there's low protein high fat the common denominator with the success of any of those diets is can the person stick with it for the long haul beyond just an immediate weight loss and if they go back to eating normal quote-unquote foods or their normal diet will the weight return so that is really the big question how long can you maintain this I'll get off the keto diet in just a second but I did it's just everybody talking about it it's like you meet somebody and they're like oh I'm doing keto tell me about the side effects of eating this sort of high fat high cholesterol keto those who are doing just that version of it right you may be burning fat because you're not eating carbs but aren't you causing other problems I mean - can't be good to eat all that junk right well you know what we're hearing a lot about anecdotally and honestly I haven't seen a lot of studies because again the problem is getting people to the point where they're following this for a long period of time it's always difficult to do those kinds of nutritional studies but what we're kind of hearing anecdotally is issues with things like kidney stones its dehydration it's that keto flu it's elevated cholesterol in some individuals the problem is everybody reacts differently the things and you would have to really take a population and have them be a very similar population and feed them the same things for a certain amount of time and really control a lot of variables to see what is really happening and in the problem with those type of studies they're hard to do it's hard to do for the people it's hard to it's expensive to do and there are so many variables and a free-range population of humans that have to be accounted for so you'd have to kind of keep them in prison somewhere and watch them for months with a controlled by it and that has not been done as far as I know I wish to remain a free-range human I just like this is great how about paleo that's another big one right lean meats and fish and fruits and veggies I mean can describe paleo and is there any real science to it yeah you know that whole diet trend I I feel like keto kind of usurped paleo and a lot of people criticize paleo because they said well you know the Paleolithic humans weren't eating this way you know they weren't they weren't putting you know coconut oil in their coffee and things like that that just that's ridiculous they weren't doing that they weren't eating that much meat because meat wasn't really available to the extent that we have sources of meat available so you know the thing I I think is important that that something that you said earlier I think that any diet like that has its pros and it's cons and if you can pull things out of that and kind of make your way to better eating habits in the long run then that's not a bad thing if I was a person and my diet was stopping by fast food every day for breakfast and ordering pizza for lunch and drinking sodas and I said yeah I'm gonna do the Paleo diet and I'm just going to eat lean meats and I'm gonna have just vegetables I'm going to really reduce I'm going to cut out a lot of those fast foods and quote unquote junk foods and maybe I didn't maintain that a hundred percent but I maintained it 75 or 80 percent I'm still at a better place than I was back in those old days and and hopefully you and your wife will be to like you you may be adopted some different habits some different food have and preferences that even if you kind of throw out like the whole say you don't stop saying you're doing Aikido Gaea diet or modified keto diet you found some things that you really enjoy eating that are new to you and that's okay so I think every diet like that has maybe something that can be good that comes out of it talking here with Leah McGrath who is a registered dietician nutritionist should I be concerned about the sugar substitute I want sweet things in my life Leah I want sweet things I want to sweeten my coffee and I sprinkle like there's a brown sugar substitute for my oatmeal those types of things and there are some who are like it's all chemicals and of course my first thought is well isn't everything chemical but what's your take on the sugar substitute I think your you've actually hit the nail right on the head they they do serve a purpose for a lot of people that you know they're trying to cut down on added sugars and these sugar substitutes and there's so many of them out there now there's something literally for everybody if you want something that's from a plant you can get stevia if you don't really you know you can get a paint pack at a blue packet a yellow packet you can get a wrist for call so there's something for everybody and you're right everything is a chemical anyway so let's not get so wrapped up in you know it's a chemical it's not a chemical you know what I hear from people is oh my gosh you know I've heard that you know maybe it can cause cancer or tumors it can in rats if you if that's all they're consuming and it's being consumed in such extraordinary amounts that humans would never be able to consume those so we're not rats we're not lab animals we have a diverse diet we are for your range population so I think in moderation and if it's substituting if it's getting to you to the point where oh I'm gonna have oatmeal which is a great source of soluble fiber if I can put a little bit of the sugar substitute on it good for you I think the big picture is more important than kind of fixating on the small little details so I shouldn't panic over xylitol and Splenda I mean these aren't sir causing agents that I'm replacing one evil with another that's not the way to approach it no and I've seen your pictures so you don't look like a lab rat I'm a free-range human that's what I am I've got some more questions for you I want to talk about intermittent fasting I get a few more diets I want to talk about sort of this vegan based thing I know anytime you mentioned vegan people immediately divided now on everybody just to relax all right go take a chill pill because we're gonna talk from a nutritional point of view but first let's go and see what our callers have for the conversation as we get 8 to 8 on the switchboard you're on the thinking atheist podcast with my guest Leah McGrath who's this my wife we started walking because driving a truck it's really easy to fall into the fast food so we started meal prepping but now I'm finding like this is not enough food for me like yesterday I felt like really exhausted and like I was going to pass out things maybe since the calorie is not enough calories well that's not a good position for you to be in as a truck driver obviously so important to keep in mind that if you and your wife are meal prepping and equal quantity of food chances are she needs a lot fewer calories than you need so your serving size should automatically be bigger and so whatever you're having as a meal prep you might need some additional sources of calories beyond that so maybe there are things that are easy to keep in the cab of your truck whether it's pieces of fruit or peanut butter crackers or a bag of carrots or milk something like that that you're gonna have some additional sources of calories so if you feel like wow that really wasn't enough to eat then you have someplace to go first now the other thing that's real helpful in terms of making you feel fuller is to make sure those meals are high in fiber and the fiber is gonna come from things like whole grains and your vegetables so really loading that up is going to make you feel full but what you're describing as kind of feeling a little like you know maybe dizzy or lightheaded that sounds to me like we're we have situation where you're just not getting enough calorie so planning on a bigger portion size and maybe some additional snacks to have on hands would be the way to go Paul you're not swerving on the road right now are you I mean just a public-safety cabbie sounds like you need to bring on the calories man yep safe travels thanks for calling thank about listening appreciate your Paul yeah all right take it easy have we evolved past the idea of you need three major meals a day breakfast lunch and dinner are we supposed to eat smaller portions more often what know that I think that if anything we have become more attuned many of us attuned to what we as individuals need what makes us feel better you know like Paul that you just spoke to you know some people just feel better when they're eating for six small meals a day rather than three meals a day some people feel like they don't need to eat three meals a day they feel comfortable they feel satisfied just eating two meals a day so I think if anything maybe we're moving away from that idea that you have to have three meals a day or you have to have three meals a day and snack so it's more of an individual approach and that's how as dietitians we're supposed to be talking to our clients and customers like are you a truck driver who gets up at 3 o'clock in the morning like what's your schedule like how much activity do you get what makes you feel the best what kind of eating pattern makes you feel the best so does it matter what time I eat this food I mean I've heard that if you have a big meal right before you go to bed it automatically will it automatically stick to your ass if you eat at 10:30 and go right to bed is there something to that no there's not you know your body distinguished necessarily when you're eating the calories or where it's going to put those calories so that's not really the issue with eating before you go to bed but what the issues are are things like your body still digesting if you're going to eat right before you go to bed and then go right to sleep you may have difficulty sleeping you may have more issues with indigestion you may have crazy wild dreams because your body's processing all that food and digesting all that food it's not the usually the best for you to eat and then go straight to bed so a lot of times they'll recommend eating your last meal waiting at least three or four hours before you go to bed because you're going to have better sleep you're not going to have issues with indigestion heartburn reflux if you go to bed on the full stomach I did a google search of like healthy living healthy diets I just did some variations and at the top of the list I saw some good stuff you know there's some reports from Harvard and the CDC had some data but if you scroll down long enough it's just wove ill right I mean I was just surrounded by all kinds of alternatives and stuff that is they're pretty websites but you know I and I over whelmed the zone died at the South Beach died at the Mediterranean diet the raw food diet I you know and I wonder how much of this just people selling books and supplements can we say I know it's a broad question but can we dive into those waters what's your take on all that well you know it just seems like you know we've already mentioned three well even before we got into that list but you know having been a dietitian for 25 years you just kind of kind of hold your breath and wait to see what kind of fad diet or trending diet is going to be this year's favorite and you know like I said earlier the bottom line the consistent thing is if you can maintain that you can maintain if you're doing it for weight loss and you can maintain that diet chances are you will stick with the weight loss but the problem is so many of these diets are very restrictive there they inhibit you socially maybe they're not enough calories and you don't feel good so people gradually resume former eating habits so and many of these are really just a different name for the same exact thing where you're calling it you know the Atkins diet or the keto diet or the Paleo diet or there's own diets they all have some very similar attributes to them and they just kind of remake them every year or so to something to sell a new book or to sell a new supplement a lot of money in the industry for sure yeah there's a saying about the foods we eat I've heard it said eat the rainbow is that just a span on eat your fruits and veggies and is there anything to it Wow you know I think that that was so I'm not sure where that was born I think we you see that a lot of time taught to kids as a way to really encourage them visually to kind of branch out into different foods and different color foods and that's not a bad thing you know that when you work with little kids sometimes their palate is so limited that encouraging them to eat different colors is a great way to get them to try new foods the problem is is sometimes them the foods that are perfectly healthy and good for you that are maybe not those rainbow colors like the whites and the Browns which are still great foods to eat whether you're talking about you know a banana or jicama or a sweet potato or white potato kind of get shoved to the curb kick to the curb so I think it's a good message and I think it works great for kids obviously but not a bad message I see on the switchboard eight one zero you're on the air with my guest Leah McGrath who's this hi my name is Rachel seaman I have been overweight my entire life I have tried every fad every diet you can think of it wasn't until last year that I went to my doctor appointment and I did not like my results from my fasting blood tests that I asked my doctor I said okay I really want to lose this weight how do you recommend that I do it and he recommended the book called balanced revolution by dr. gerard Mullen and this is the only thing I had ever found where I lost the weight I didn't do the yo-yoing I stuck to it and I was just wondering I lost 70 pounds and 16 and half inches off my waist and like nine months what do you mean gut balance can you frame that for me and the listeners sure talks about how your gut is actually talks to your brain and tells you when to eat and when not to eat the doctor has found that when you put the you need to think of your gut as like a garden so whatever you're into it you're okay if you put bad things into your body and into your gut you're gonna get bad out no you don't work for you no work for the company right is I do want to make sure that it is you're not just shilling for the or okay all right cool I I'm sorry I got to be devil's advocate because I know the skeptics and the audience are like she's selling his book Leah McGrath you have any comments on this well I think you know what you're talking about your colors talking about is really what's called intuitive eating or mindful eating where you are getting more in touch with there is definitely a connection between our gut and our brain we know that if we're anxious and we're upset sometimes for some of us that causes that anxiety that being upset causes our stomach to be upset that's definitely a gut brain interaction but adopting more mindful eating habits more intuitive eating habits so you're getting more in touch with what am i eating why am i eating this am I really hungry am i eating because it's in front of me and it's there am i eating just because that first taste tasted great and so I feel like I have to finish the whole plate am i eating because I grew up being told that you can't leave the table and let you clean your plate people are starving in China so getting more in touch with that is never a bad idea and if it's something if you've adopted eating habits that have gotten you to the point where you're happy with what you're eating and you can as I said earlier and you can maintain that for a long term and you're healthy and you can have enjoy your social life and your family life that's a good thing thank you for the call thanks for being a part of the show congratulations on your success thank you see you later so you mentioned the child parent says there are children starving all over the world finish your plate yeah how much of the obesity problem starts when you're a kid I mean I guess it's a loaded Bastion right I already know the answer but can we speak to that the habits start early right yeah you know I think there are some really good habits and some really not so great habits that can started a very young age you know using food as a punishment or reward is really sets a lot of us up for problems later in life you know if you're good you can have some ice cream if you finish your vegetables you can have some candy you know that kind of rewards this phone for children this often becomes very problematic as they get older or putting kids on a very restrictive diet for no reason when they're young you know because a lot of times we see that from people who have their own issues and their own concerns around food and they're so worried about their children being overweight or having to deal with issues around obesity that they put their children on highly restrictive diets unnecessarily restrictive diets and then that becomes problematic a lot of those behaviors around food start at a very very young age but I mean if you're running through the fast-food drive-in because you live a busy life you have a responsibilities you you know it's hard to sit down cook a meal for a lot of people are you front-loading the rest of the child's life for bad health choices for things like you know heart disease and those types of deal I mean what do you think well you know I would like to I guess I I'd like to think that hopefully people aren't doing that on a regular couple things hopefully people aren't doing that on a regular basis and if our lives are so busy that that is something on a regular basis maybe we really need to evaluate power spending our time or how we're scheduling our time in our kids time the next thing is I think a lot of the fast food or Quick Serve restaurants have tried to do some things because they know that they've gotten a lot of heat in this category whether it's cutting down on portion sizes or offering salad or wraps or apple slices instead of cookie so there have been some efforts in those areas for in the fast food and quick serve but I also think it's really important to not get into that whole blame game that parents shouldn't be blamed for like you know going out fad for fast food once a week is that going to make make it certain that your child's gonna have end up with diabetes or heart disease no that's not going to be the situation but if that becomes a regular part of your life in your schedule then that's certainly going to make it more difficult for that child to understand what better choices are and healthier choices are as they move into their adolescence the Meredith hood this is a broadcast which is about science-based reason based evidence-based living so on today's broadcast we're not talking about religion per se I mean we may get into veganism which for many people they approach with a religious fervor may if you're vegan great fantastic I'm I'm not dissing you but I'm saying that there is an intensity to those who are many of them who are vegan activists and those who are anti vegan there's a religious sort of vibe you know to both sides of that if you experience this when people say the word vegan it's like an explosion it's almost worse than talking politics right yeah I think that you know I have friends that have followed a vegan diet for years to remember of different reasons you know for religious reasons health reasons ethical reasons and they're wonderful people and I care for them and then we have people as you mentioned us who it's it it's at a level of intensity that is really activism and that is problematic for a lot of our farmers a lot of different food companies food brands where you have that level of activism and what's really stunning is it's a very small percentage of people in the United States actually identify as vegan its figures are they estimate that less than one percent of people in the United States are actually vegan I think the number is actually probably more like 0.5% of people in the United States are truly vegans with the ethical vegan eye they make some compelling arguments you know for when they're in a world where we're reducing suffering and those types of things but beyond very ethical issue how about the practical issue can you eat no meat and be healthy well and and a true bigness goes beyond not eating meat I mean there it's not having any type of its having animal free products in your home it's not having honey so it's it's a very comprehensive lifestyle it's more than just going up to a menu and saying I don't want me it's much more than that and I think that that it is very challenging for people who adopt that and that's why there's so much of a return to eating meat like the percentage of people who identify as being in or vegetarian and itíd states that resume eating meat is something like 84 percent that will go back to eating let me go back to the switchboard quickly on skype I've got four four hi you're on the thinking atheist podcast with registered dietitian nutritionist Leah McGrath who's this - Suzie pokin thanks for coming Suzie what do you have for us comment or question question really I've I've recently been diagnosed with fibromyalgia they tablets our mom just banged on the weight and and obviously I'm limited in how much exercise I can do as well so I'm just wondering if if only I have any recommendations for the kind of food that I should be eating well you you know are you I'm guessing you're on some sort of steroid gabapentin that some like completely epileptic anti-inflammatory right so it so as a dietitian and in this kind of situation I can't give you nutritional advice because you know you're not my patient and I can no you know there are there are there certainly are medications that can exacerbate or cause weight gain or make it more difficult for you to lose weight especially if you're dealing with something like fibromyalgia and that may also have an effect on your ability to be active and exercise I think in that situation there's really only a few things that you can do you could certainly talk to your physician about you know are there and is there anything else that I could take because this really seems to be making me gain weight and that just makes everything worse for you and it makes it more difficult to exercise and be active so it's going to be very challenging if that's the situation if that medication is making you feel like you you need to constantly hungry or you have an appetite so my first recommendation would be to go back to your physician and say is there anything else that I might be able to take that wouldn't have this make me feel like I have I'm having this side effect yeah I could have I think II thanks for calling the Sheila all my best thank you very much psyche bye - the vegan even the fast food will combine the two have you tried the impossible burger or any of these plant-based burgers you know I have tried a lot of them but I have not tried the impossible as yet it's so interesting - that's because you know these you know they're calling themselves plant-based which is a marketing strategy to sort of kind of skirt the idea of them being for the vegan or vegetarian shopper but many of these like you know you you probably remember when tofurkey and Boca burger and Morningstar farms first at the market right that's been over 20 years so these are types of meat replacement or meat substitutes or meat alternatives are really nothing new what's kind of new is how they look some of them they have beet juice to kind of make them look like they're bleeding a little bit how they are being marketed some of them are being marketed right next to a hundred percent ground beef which is a big departure from the frozen food taste and sometimes in some cases just through the taste profile is a little bit better different than maybe the older generation meat alternatives were is there a health benefit to you know getting off the meat burger and trying a plant-based burger there is a health benefit to eating a diet that includes more plants so fruits vegetables grains beans nuts seeds which is really the recommendation of the dietary guideline it that is very different than saying I want to eat more plant-based diet so I'm going to go out and buy a burger that is made of soy protein or pea protein and I'm going to have that you know three or four times a week I think the agreement on that is pretty universal but those are not something that are going to necessarily be healthier quote-unquote in terms of sodium and saturated fat many times they're identical to the animal products well they're higher they're the same amount of saturated fat they might be higher in sodium than 100 percent ground B so as a dietician I don't see a huge health benefit to those particular products especially if there's something that people are consuming on a regular basis now that being said they are certainly providing people with more options and people like options Americans like options we like choices we don't want people to tell us what we should eat or not eat we want to have chicken one day and we want to have fish the next day or we want to have a veggie Bowl on Wednesday so we like to have different options if you were to make the ethical decision right I don't want an animal to be killed so I'm going to go to that's one thing but to say it's healthier I mean just to make that statement ignores the reality that a lot of the plant-based burgers are still loaded with stuff that you probably don't want to eat consistently exactly you know I don't want to agitate to get into this long list of ingredients or ingredients you can't pronounce because that sounds very keema phobic and like food babe like these are essentially a recipe that these manufacturers have created to get as close as they can to tasting like beef in this case situation beep so you know they might have to put different flavoring agents and coloring agents in to get you to the point where you're like oh I don't miss beef because this tastes enough like B to make me happy and not miss B's so if that's what you're looking for those products are there now but if you are wanting to include more plant-based products I would say eat fruits vegetables grains beans nuts and seeds that's where you should go when we come back we're gonna talk about processed foods wait how its processed what's not processed is it really on that bad for you I want to talk about these trips to these healthier grocery stores as well when you walk in everything is whole-grain and no additives and whatever how much of this is just marketing how much of this is the advertising department and how much of it is genuinely helpful these and a whole lot more in just a second hang on now is not the time of course to buy razors at the drugstore but not completely for the reason you think the big razor brands have a lot of gimmicks and of course that retailer markup and it has so many people paying way too much for a premium shave fortunately Harry's has the solution Harry's has taken shaving back to the essentials quality durable blades made in their German Factory at just 2 dollars a blade no middleman markups shipping right to your door in a 100% quality guarantee if you don't love your shave just let them know they will give you a full refund Harry's is just impressive the weighted organ AMA handle that just feels like quality in my hands the shave is close the whole package is nice enough to give out as gifts which I often do and man do I like not forking out way too much money for a close comfortable shape I'm convinced you're going to feel the same way it's a great way to support this broadcast your shaving anyway shave with Harry's listeners of my show can redeem their Harry's trial set at harrys.com slash the thinking atheist you'll get a weighted organ AMA candle for a firm grip five blade razor with a lubricating strip and trimmer blade rich lathering shave gel with aloe to keep your skin hydrated and a travel blade cover to keep your razor dry and easy to grab on the go go to harrys.com slash the thinking atheist to start shaving better today I remember back in my Christian radio days we used to have these commercials I look at it now like I look on religion and I wonder how did I ever buy this like how did how did this happen well we did these commercials for a diet program where you take these herbal supplements these sort of magic pills and it could have been anything in the pills that they weren't remotely regulated by the FDA or anything you know they were just being sold with promises that you will be more well and you will be healthier and skinnier and of course the instructions now we look at them and we're like hey wait a minute you take the supplements in the morning you take these three or four pills and then you drink a gallon of water all day and you eat a reasonable and healthy diet and exercise at least 30 minutes three times a week of course you don't know I'm like wait a minute wait a minute so take the magic pills and then live a healthy lifestyle and you will be healthier and just it's embarrassing it's embarrassing but you know this kind of health and wellness stuff the health and wellness industry a just man it's massive and it continues today all kinds of stuff being sold out there that's the subject we're talking here with registered dietician nutritionist Leah McGrath about health and wellness claims and we're getting input comments and questions from the audience someone in the chat made a claim just now that processed food equals cancer and it reminded me of a documentary that I'd seen that I've sort of taken with a grain of salt called Forks Over knives that continues to rest on the quote China Study I don't even know where to start here because it's such a broad thing but this host of the documentary switched to plant-based food and blended it into smoothies and lost a ton of weight and his health problems disappeared and he made this documentary but it's rests on the science quote/unquote science of a China dottie are you familiar with this and can you address it yeah that's um what's his last name is it he Coleman Carroll I'm blanking on his name but it up yeah dad essentially vegan and they're part of that big proponents of a vegan diet you know a vegan diet a true being a diet words you know primarily whole plant foods there's nothing wrong with that now they are many times missing some nutrients that are in animal products that they have to either really be very intentional about trying to get or get through supplement things like certain B vitamins b12 would be one thing iron calcium vitamin C so you have to have if you're going to have to follow a vegan diet needs to be a well-planned we think that's really important I'm looking at the credits here the lot of PhDs and MDS T Colin Campbell yeah T Colin Campbell thank you he's the based on another vegan vegan diet but coming back to the whole idea of process um that's like one of my little pet peeves when people rail against processed foods because everything we eat is processed I mean you know your Greek yogurt didn't come up out of the ground this rejiggered it came from a cow and that was processed from milk and that's made into Greek yogurt and that's a process and when you cook food at home you're processing raw ingredients to make a meal so everything we eat is essentially processed in some way there are certainly levels of processing from like minimally processed to ultra or highly processed but just using that word is sort of a shorthand for you know processed as bad okay I think that's kind of a lazy lazy thank you people like simple solutions don't I mean I'm guilty of this so if we want it to fit on a bumper sticker right natural get processed bad but not all natural foods are things we want to put in our bodies sure exactly or we don't want to put them in our body how they exist in nature I mean you're not going to walk into a field of wheat and put a bunch of wheat kernels into your mouth and end up you know you can't make bread in your mouth it's not about work you know you can't just pick mushrooms up out of the ground and eat them some could be poisonous so we live in just this amazing time of so many different food opportunities and food choices and which kind of ironic is that the more we have the more suspicious and critical we are of those food choices and food opportunity let's see if I've got a call on the switchboard with no number and let me just try to pull it up here hi who's this rosemary thanks for calling you got a comment a question a comment I'm all these funny diets in the stars use this is the dangers aren't they I mean like when Beyonce was in a film and the dream girl she went on this k9 pepper and lemon juice diet and that was so bad and it was like putting the papers and magazines that you know this is what how she lost it in some fantastic I think that's just very dangerous wait it was Cayenne right not k9 she was gonna say well you're just eating canine that's a whole other kind of diet so this actually rosemary brings me to another point so I'll combine my question with yours I've heard that cayenne pepper is supposed to boost metabolism there's a claim that ginger can reduce body fat ginseng is supposed to change your guts microbiota or whatever that is microbiota out of whatever that is what about these herbs and spices that we put on our foods do they have a weight reduction component to them short answers no you know you might have a very slight thermic effect very very slight but in the long run it's not going to be like sprinkling cayenne pepper on your food or black pepper isn't I'm going to make you burn an additional 500 calories a day that's that's just not how it works the way your body uses calories and burns calories is really do two things like exercise and activity and movement and just your body's all the processes that go on your your body the problem with a lot of these things that you mentioned like whether we're talking about cayenne pepper we're talking about ginseng or ginger or anything is you know these products there's nothing bad about any of these products the problem is is that many times people start to just say you know oh it's too much of a hassle to get fresh ginger and put it in a stir-fry with lovely vegetables and some some lean meat you know I'm just going to get it ginger capsules or I'm gonna get cayenne pepper capsules or I'm gonna get whatever kind of capsule and I'll just swallow those because we love to take pills and supplements the problem of supplements aren't regulated like prescription medication so what is in your supplement may not be what you really think is in your supplement so that's one thing and then the the claims that are made usually has little or no basis and science or medicine and coming back to your caller talking about somebody like Beyonce you're absolutely right I mean you pick up People magazine or whatever the popular magazine and you see this is how you know Beyonce lost weight looks amazing for the Super Bowl or whatever but they don't talk about the fact that Beyonce has probably a team of people who are helping her to get to that point you know from trainers and the suits and the you know somebody who comes in and cooks all her food for her her chef our nutritionist or dietitian whoever she has she she's wealthy enough that she this is all she has to think about how she looks she doesn't have 40 hour a week job she can afford to have all those people measuring everything she eats cooking everything for her watching what she wears grooming her so she looks amazing all the time so it's an unrealistic expectation that we have these images of stars and people and chances are they're really not eating the way that the magazine says they're eating anyway now they're just selling magazines anyway right get thin quick get sexy fast and you know I've accepted the reality in my life that there is no food that I can eat that will make me look like Hugh Jackman as much as I would like that to happen it's just not a reality I will always look like Ferris Bueller for the rest of my accepted rosemary thanks for calling you take care of yourself okay thank you see you later bye talking here with Lea McGrath she is a registered dietician nutritionist so I go we shop it like a healthier supermarket that's just down the road it's convenient and they've got good stuff good produce but I've noticed that every box every package every can everything has these sort of catch words whole-grain unprocessed this is marketing is that what's happening here is this just they understand there's a market for people who if they see the word natural on the box they're tempted to lean that direction yeah I think you know again it's just it's kind of like the fad diet thing every every couple of years we see a new label it's almost like the brand's leave a little bit of real estate on the front of their package because they know that this is the next term out there that's going to attract attention you know you remember when it was all about gluten-free right everything it was all about that kind of wording on a package if it was gluten-free that was good somehow for some reason and then it was non-gmo and then it was like no sugar added so yeah those are marketing terms but the front of the package is sort of like the Wild West for marketing you know they can put all kinds of different things on there to attract your attention they can use really incredible images to attract your attention the boring stuff is the black and white and the nutrition facts panel and the ingredients and that's what tells the real story of what you're actually eating right there's panels on the back are they I mean are they pretty close to reality or do they get some there there's some wiggle room in those nutritional facts charts well there there's I don't know if you want to cope with room there's like rounding things that they can do but they very are supposed to be based on actual data like when you are if you have a success if you made a product that you wanted to sell you would have to send it into a lab and have it analyzed so that you knew the nutrition facts what's going to be going on the panel and then that information is all part becomes all part of that product so you pay to have that analyzed you just don't make up information for for zero you're on the thinking atheist podcast Leah McGrath who's this this is Malachi and from Ohio that was in the chance is commenting about plant-based and I think it's interesting a lot of these uh well for one thing doctors are not educated in nutrition so you can't really rely on doctors to give you the effective you know we're they're gonna give prescribed medication and then dietitian seems I was kind of take this middle of the road this moderation kind of plan work but moderation is so subjective and and the reality is that plant-based diet or lifestyle is the only diet that don't actually remove anything that you need to sustain yourself where every other diet you know like maketo diet you know you're removing complex carbs and you're only eating meat and fat you're pumping your veins full of fat and in creating basically clogging up your arteries and creating ketosis and so anyway so plant base is really you're eating things that are growing out of the ground you're not eating processed foods you know you're creating your own beavers by taking black beans you're boiling them or you know and you're putting them in the in the Vitamix blender and then you're adding some oats to it you're making you put in the oven you're making your own bean burgers that are healthy they're not packed full of these chemicals that are going through this processing plant or all these other additives and then chemical these things that are that are killing us and creating all the essential in our body and I'm not an expert I'm not a doctor not a dietician I'm just I just on I've listened to so much information that fact base based on and these studies and a lot of stuff we've known for decades it's just been suppressed or haven't been part of the mainstream and I just think people just get the information they can make there if they have the truth they can make their own decision it's pretty obvious well I appreciate your comment let me let me let Leah jump in here because she is an expert in the failures your take on what you just heard well you know I'm always like to ask people when they define a diet as plant-based are you talking about a vegan diet or vegetarian diet or how do you define clad space well I'm I follow I don't personally with dr. Michael Greger that he runs on health facts that were again his whole he wrote a book how not to die and his second book is how not to diet and he has a really great guideline as far as a traffic light of yellow green and red food and so the green foods are things like around the ground begin your you're not some eating McDonald's fries you're taking a potato that you bought at the grocery store you're slicing it up and you know your whether or not you're choosing to eat oil or not there's another thing but you know you're slicing up yourself and you're not eating the process like frozen foods and things like that and so we kind of a look at traffic we're yellow foods are or maybe slow moderately or slightly processed foods and red foods are like meat dairy and highly processed foods beacon the reason and he comes he's develop this system based on this evidence-based you know research and medical research and journals that can esteem go through and really what what led me down this path personally is just the fact of history of cancer in my family and I was challenging whether or not I was genetically predisposed and had no other option or if I had a choice and so to me based on all the research that I've done that I have a choice if I change my diet and I avoid things in our food that are promoting cancers and I can increase my chances of not getting this and I don't know if you you guys have talked about this yet but I'm very and and neat you know if they ruin our body you can see most animal product the animal protein that it promotes igf-1 which is human growth hormone and it's a huge cancer promoter and hang on there's none to unpack here alright so I'm trying to string you because there a lot I don't want to think over right you can't eat your way out of a genetic predisposition to cancer can you know you know and you know you can lessen your risks if you have those genes for cancer it doesn't mean if you have the genes for the certain type of cancer doesn't mean you're going to actually end up having the cancer and you can certainly maybe reduce your risk or have that awareness there are certain environmental things but you're not going to be able to eat your way out of environmental exposures you're not to be able to eat your way out of you know I think I think what's important I mean I think it's great to embrace eating more fruits vegetables grains beans nuts seeds I you know I've said that repeatedly I also think we need to acknowledge that many people around the world live long lives and live very healthy lives having a very diverse diet which includes dairy and whether that's milk or that whether it's a fermented dairy like a yogurt cheese product and that people all around the world eat meat products so I think you have to find a diet that makes you feel good and that you can sustain for the long haul and that you you can maintain your health unfortunately true vegan diet does need some sort of supplementation because and the one of the biggest one is vitamin b12 I mean we we see some really serious health consequences when people are on a vegan diet for a long term and are not there are these kind of minor low levels I efficiency may go unrecognized for long periods of time and then they become serious problems so whenever somebody was subscribing to a very strict vegan diet which is kind of what I believe you're describing because I know dr. Greger is a vegan and he advocates for that diet which I would strongly recommend that you make sure you're you're having your blood test every year to check for things like your iron levels your calcium vitamin D b12 to make sure that you aren't going from a situation of having a slight deficiency to a full-blown deficiency appreciate your call my friend thanks for being a part of the show good weight loss thank you come on Lea I mean do you ever just sneak out and get a piece of cheesecake I'm saying did you just go out and you know what give me the extra hot fudge on the sundae do you ever have pizza come on you know me you're human this time of year is that it's the Cadbury egg oh my gosh it's like the one time of year when I see them in the store I'm like oh my gosh it's the Cadbury egg I have a sweet tooth like you said so I have to make sure that I have strategies that I have things like turn around and that every once in a while if I want something sweet I don't beat myself up over having something sweet and you know you balance your life out with exercise and activity as much as you can does it derail your train I've heard people say well you know once you step off the wagon right because I had a piece of peanut butter pie last night it had chocolate on the top of it and a graham cracker crust and I'm like well this I just hose myself like if I kicked in my sugar cravings again you know again I think it really depends on you some people you know over the course of my life I have know people who are that all-or-nothing it's like sugar is too much of a temptation so therefore I have to give up all sugar I can't ever each other and then there's the people who are like you know I can control my sweet tooth I allow myself piece of chocolate a day or I allow myself when I go out to eat I have you know that peanut butter pie with a graham cracker fresh from the chocolate syrup or whatever so I think you can't view those times as I've fallen off the wagon I feel guilty I feel terrible all is lost I might as well resume my own old eating habits and that's really not how you should look at it you should really look at it as you know what I'm gonna really enjoy this and it sounds like you did and you didn't eat the whole pie so there's that I think I think you just I you know I know that your caller Malik I was sort of like I you know dieticians and mod everything in moderation yeah well I think that's probably the more realistic way to look at things anyway how do we protect ourselves from somebody who's maybe throwing some credentials at us but maybe selling whoa is there like a filter that we could use that you would recommend you know I think it kind of comes back to something you said earlier in the show when you ask the caller you know why are you talking about this specific diet what's your interest in it are you selling it so I think that that's always a big red flag for me if somebody is trying to sell their their philosophy their diet as better than anything anybody else is doing that's a big red flag for me look at somebody's credentials what is their training what is their experience are they in it for themselves are they really in it to provide science-based information you know or are they in it to make a quick buck and get more advertisers are they really in it to help people and I know a lot of people these days seem to have some distrust of the government but you know you pay for four entities like the FDA USDA CDC so these are people that don't have a vested interest in selling you a book or selling you a diet plan that's where I would start to try and get some science-based information is your name Gwyneth Paltrow or Vani Hari that's probably a good place to start follow the GUP website and you mentioned food babe do you does this go into a closet and just bang your head against the sheetrock over that stuff or what well you know I think it makes me it makes me sad when I hear people who you know they spend a lot of money on something because you know some sort of quick fix or you know some sort of magical T or you know they said oh you know dr. oz this I think that you know a lot of us are looking for the quick fix and the cure and you know like you're one caller we're frustrated because we've tried different things and they haven't worked and we're we're looking for that magic bullet we're looking for that solution and so you can't really blame people for kind of grasping at those types of advertisements and those types of individuals but I think in the long run it just leads you down the path of frustration and an expensive waste of money Leah McGrath you are amazing thanks for educating us Forbes helping to route us in some evidence-based information and good lifestyle type stuff and I wish you all the best in your endeavors I will include the link to your Twitter in the description box so that anybody who wants to go and follow you and your work can certainly do so it's been an honor and a pleasure thanks again thank follow the thinking atheist on Facebook and Twitter for a complete archive of podcasts and video products like mugs and t-shirts featuring the thinking atheist logo links to atheist pages and resources and details on upcoming free thought events and conventions log on to our website the thinking atheist com .

Video Description:

We're directing our rational brains toward the subject of health and nutrition...with special guest and Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist Leah McGrath. (@InglesDietitian)

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January 05, 2021 Tags : andrews , atheism , atheist , diet , food , health , keto , leah , lifestyle , mcgrath , nutrition , Paleo , Paleo Diet , science , seth , spreaker , thinking , Video

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