Episode 136: The Washington Post has Beef with Anti-Diet Dietitians

Season 8

Apr 24

Listen to the episode

Watch on YouTube

Episode Description

In this episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast, Emily and Hannah discuss one of the latest Washington Post articles discussing how anti-diet dietitians and “big food” are promoting obesity. The girls provide all of their very unfiltered thoughts and break down specific quotes and research listed within the recent article. The girls also chat about conflict of interest and what we can take away from this article. So much drama! Be sure to tune in.

Mentioned episodes

Tune in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube to listen.

0:08
Hello everybody welcome back to the Pod hi guys it's gonna be a very
0:15
exciting and upbeat episode today The Not So upbeat dietitians have arrived to
0:20
the scene if you are not in the no Washington Post published a new
0:27
article attacking dietitian and we're going to talk about it today before we get into it subscribe to the YouTube we
0:35
had fun things on there you can see our beautiful faces come hang out also if you want
0:41
more of us where we're definitely a lot more happy and upbeat listen to our exclusive content on Spotify for a very
0:49
low price of $2.99 a month we release new episodes every week I think we have
0:54
like almost 50 at this point and we overshare and talk about that don't
1:00
matter and sometimes that's all you need in life I sometimes wish that we started
1:05
this podcast when we did like talking about like goofy little things or like
1:11
if I was into books back then like if we like had a book podcast so support us so we can keep
1:17
doing this I like to think maybe one day we can like Branch out a little bit like
1:24
maybe do like a diet review once a month a book review once a month that'd be so
1:31
cute our little book club that'd be so cute I feel like we need to build the
1:37
audience first because otherwise people are GNA have no idea what they're getting into they're like what is it
1:43
this week talking about ice cream flavors or like books what's going on
1:48
yeah one day so stick around stick around for today
1:54
though Emily and I are a little grumpy if you couldn't tell by our tone like
1:59
Emily mentioned the top there is a new article from The Washington Post this one came out on April 4th they did also
2:05
post one back in September which I can't believe it was that long ago it feels like it was like last month very recent
2:10
yeah but back in September of 2023 there was one when there was the whole campaign you may have seen if you follow
2:17
dietitians about like the safety of aspartame yeah we won't be going over the quotes of that one today um because
2:23
it was a little while ago but we are today going to share some specific quotes from the one that's very very
2:30
recent and let you know if we actually are promoting obesity and being paid by
2:35
big food yeah we just really start off strong so the title of this article is
2:42
as obesity Rises big food and dietitians push quote unquote anti-diet advice the
2:50
description States General Mills warns of quote food shaming dietician
2:55
influencers promote junk food and discourage weight loss efforts
3:00
listen everyone here knows I'm a big fan of like the quotes whether it's air quotes if you can see me or like in my
3:05
blog or any kind of writing I always do quotes they used it for article in like so many weird
3:12
places food shaming anti-diet disordered eating these are all real things yeah it
3:22
was very confusing I was like what is happening here like you could just like
3:28
the bias was oo out of it although I guess we're very biased too against article but we are we are too but there
3:36
are people that have reacted to this that are not dietitians and support what we have to say that's
3:44
true I've got some some comments from some people in my community and they've said yeah how enraged they were Wishbone
3:52
kitchen do you know her uhhuh she's like on our side oh and she like actually
3:58
reposted some of Clara's Tik Tok about this so I was like we got a private Chef
4:03
on our heck yeah I love that but okay should we get into the
4:08
quotes let's let's we have a lot of quotes that we're going to discuss and react to and I think at the time this
4:16
article is free but sometimes there are weird pay walls so how the article starts is it talks about this woman
4:25
who we'll just quote it Jay Ro I don't know how say this last name Roan ran
4:32
Roan ran sorry sorry jay jay struggled to lose weight for years but she felt as
4:38
if a burden had lifted when she discovered YouTube influencers advocating quote Health at every size
4:45
urging her to stop dieting and start listening to her quote mental
4:50
hunger there's no further discussion until really late in the article about
4:56
what Hayes is yeah which is like it feels very um what's I don't want to say
5:04
leading but like very like you know what's the opposite of like an open
5:09
question no motivational interviewing you know what I'm talking about where like you
5:15
say things that are definitely they're trying to like guide us to think something as the reader yes
5:21
I can't think of the word but I know you're talking about now yes we have a haze episode listen to it we're going to
5:27
be BL a lot of episodes um but it just starts off with this and
5:34
then doesn't like talk at all about what Hayes or mental hunger are at all it
5:40
goes right into what happened after exactly and like shames her weight
5:45
gain yeah because spoiler is what happens Jay talks about how they gain
5:51
weight as a result of ditching the diets listening to their mental
5:56
hunger and so the reader can assume ass that anyone who stops dieting is going
6:02
to become quote unquote obese and unhealthy yeah and they don't describe
6:08
it no there's no description and it's a very much like oh they stopped caring
6:14
about what they were eating and then they lost all this weight or they gained all this weight back and now they weigh
6:21
even more and we've talked about this quite a bit on the podcast about like
6:28
the misinformation around like the intuitive eating slash like anti-diet
6:33
approach it's not just eat whatever you want and this isn't on Jay I don't know if Jay was working with a dietitian or
6:40
any health care professional during this time but that's a very common
6:45
misconception is we're telling everyone just eat whatever the heck you want who
6:51
cares about your health exactly yeah nothing against Jay because we don't
6:56
exactly know what the situation was it does say that they
7:01
discovered this like help at every siiz approach by watching YouTube influencers
7:06
so I do wonder if she was selftaught I know I wonder too I wonder if maybe TD was one of those maybe we're to
7:16
blame interesting so yeah there's a few different quotes we'll address throughout our time today talking about
7:23
like hay anti-diet like how the article sort of misconstrues that our next quote
7:28
though to kind of jump into a whole different jump into a different ship it's definitely not a definitely not a
7:34
phrase but I'm going to say it anyway jump ship yeah I guess I mean that's how this article kind of felt they were like
7:40
getting thrown around like J would randomly come up like every couple
7:45
paragraphs and then we'd like get a random quot they would like just say like her last name I'm like who is this
7:51
person I like scroll back like oh yeah it's Jay the person who struggled with us okay got it yeah we're going to talk
7:57
about the the authors too at the end here yes and maybe maybe an issue we have
8:02
right off the bat is their writing is hard to follow but anyway our next quote talks more about like us as dietitians
8:09
so one of the quotes that we're talking about here is quote online dietitians many of them backed by food makers also
8:16
are building lucrative followings by co-opting anti-diet messages the word lucrative cracked me
8:25
up like why would it so dramatic billions and billions of
8:30
followers as if there aren't like Health influencers that are building lucrative followings doing the opposite of this I
8:36
was thinking this the entire time I'm like where are we calling out to people with like literally no nutrition
8:42
education yes and they act like like when they say
8:48
backed by food makers they act like every single thing we post is being paid thousands of
8:53
dollar to talk about whoa swallow your food and tell
8:59
tell me what you're thinking because I am interested oh God you're going to make
9:04
me choke on my spit by laughing not again we already choke in the fiber episode I
9:11
literally was debating my mom on this not really debating she just touched a
9:16
sensitive point and then it set me off but we're gonna talk about this
9:22
later but like back by the food makers so many of these
9:27
dietitians us included like you would think every single post we're making is
9:33
sponsored it is not like even though like really big dieticians who have
9:39
hundreds of thousands or like millions of followers Millions yeah like maybe
9:44
once every like 15 20 that's like me being pretty
9:49
generous yeah like is an ad or a paid P like they post other things all the time
9:57
that's like what you have to do with social media you have to post frequently to keep up or else people get bored of
10:03
you and we don't have enough brand work to post a new brand post every single day of the week that'd be crazy
10:11
crazy ask by food makers trust me we're not making enough to
10:17
me yeah they say like big food is funding us like we're making so much money like no almost any diean you talk
10:24
to except for a key few will tell you that we are vastly underpaid even though of us who are in private practice and
10:30
like do work with Brands like we're not making just gobs and gobs of money here
10:36
yeah but yeah like to the whole food maker thing backed by food makers I post
10:42
and you do too like on your YouTube like you post recipes and it's not like every single thing that you're sharing in that
10:48
video for your like soy sauce or your uh stir fry sauce has been like paid for by a brand
10:55
like those are just products that you actually like to use and are recommending yeah
11:01
I'm wondering who they were looking at I know they weren't looking at a specific person because this doesn't exist but
11:07
like imagining someone's entire page just being ads oh my God they would have
11:12
they would not have a lucrative following like no one's follow an account would not have a lucrative F
11:18
exactly people don't want to follow people that just post ads whenever I post an ad it's my my worst performing
11:25
content which is I'm not mad about it I'm expecting that like I don't interact with ads that see on the internet I
11:30
scroll past those because also like once you see that you kind of like know like oh like you're a little bit more
11:36
hesitant as a consumer we just know that in the world of social media and
11:42
Technology exactly and so if like we only posted ads no one would ever trust a word that we were saying that's why we
11:48
have to like mix it in and on the same like same point is it really so bad for
11:53
us to get paid for our expertise and work with brands that we trust and like actually encourage encourage others to
11:59
use if they want to and like no one's holding a gun to her head and being like you don't have to eat the damn Cheerios
12:06
like like post this thing about chees it's right now or else you're getting
12:12
taken out like people are consenting to posting these ads and
12:17
also dietitians like I'm not speaking for all of them because there's whack
12:24
ones in every single any profession you look at there's going to be some weird bad eggs
12:31
but typically they're they believe in what they're posting and they're not
12:36
like maybe if they're posting something crazy maybe re-evaluate who they are as a person
12:43
exactly there are definitely sellouts but not all of us are sellouts we just
12:48
want to be paid for our work and recommendations if we are going to recommend a product over and over and
12:54
over again it'd be nice if the brand recognized that and like helped us out a little bit if it's that we think is
13:00
actually a quality product which we have the professional education to determine
13:06
if it actually is a good qu like quality product because we're dietitians one of the few professions who actually has the
13:12
expertise to make these recommendations about food yeah and
13:17
supplements which also didn't come up supplements I mean that'd be a whole other article I'm sure but like how
13:23
those are promoted willy-nilly by people who have no education on the matter they
13:28
don't want to talk about those people though they just want to talk about dieticians oh especially yeah whatever his name is the one author we get
13:36
to let's talk about this next one I feel like it kind of goes pretty well with what we were just talking about um it's
13:42
quote most of the influencers who used anti-diet language were also paid to promote products from food beverage and
13:49
supplement companies the analysis found so they said they analyzed like 1,500 social media posts and it says like most
13:55
the influencers were being paid for every single post that you anti-diet language I'm like that's not possible
14:03
because there's so there's like hundreds I know they said 1500 whatever but there's like hundreds and thousands and
14:09
millions of posts adapting and supporting anti-diet language and the large majority of them
14:16
do not include ads because from like a wide variet like you
14:23
don't need an ad to use anti-diet language I use it every day and I yeah
14:29
post and add like once a month tops yeah but I use that hashtag every single
14:36
day oh my God and yeah I know it's just like I'm talking about my experience your experience but we are among many
14:43
others who are in the same boat like we're not posting ads with the hashtag
14:49
anti-diet a lot of times too not every food post that we do has to even do with
14:55
anti-diet no like trying to think of what I done recently I made a post about like how to make some
15:01
rice with bone broth and I wasn't talking about like eating disorder recovery in that post it was just like here's how you make some rice with some
15:07
bone broth exciting convenient nutrition I am rooting obesity by saying that yeah
15:15
probably not the rice with oh yeah no rice unless it's
15:21
brown yeah get that extra gram of fiber in there but yeah this this quotee I was just
15:28
like this is if you look at any person who dedicates a lot of their following
15:34
or like aligns with anti-diet the anti-diet space you can just do a quick
15:39
little scroll it takes less than a minute and you can see that the majority
15:46
of the posts are not ads exactly and like you said there are of course bad eggs but this article did not specify
15:54
that it's like all anti-diet dietitians they're all EXs and also I want to like
16:01
point out it says most the influencers who use anti-diet language I've seen a lot of non- dieticians who claim to be
16:07
like anti-diet coaches who then like promote very harmful behaviors so I
16:15
don't even think they were it maybe they're Pro I don't know I don't follow them I don't know them these people as
16:21
well or what they do but maybe they're promoting more with food but
16:29
it's very much like targeted at dietitians oh exactly but it's really funny you mention that the influencer
16:35
thing because just today I was on Tik Tock doing like just some like market research I typed in intuitive eating
16:40
into the search bar most of the top videos that showed up were how to lose weight with
16:46
intuitive eating so which is it is like the anti-diet approach promoting obesity or is it being misconstrued by influencers
16:53
to promote weight loss I'm a bit confused
16:59
it's whichever meets the agenda exactly which we'll talk about
17:04
when we we talk about the authors a little bit more this next part I just want to I did the like deep dive walk us
17:10
through it I'm so excited to hear your Deep dive I felt like I was back at Purdue doing my little an an analysis an
17:20
I was about to say analyses I'm like that's not right of the main research study they
17:27
were quoting so their quote is nearly half a million Americans die at early
17:32
die early each year not like they die at the beginning of the year but they die early was like they die like January
17:40
through June what are they saying if you're obese you only die of your fatness January through March first
17:47
couple months yeah nearly half a million Americans die early each year as a result of excess body weight according
17:53
to estimates in a 2022 Lancet study so we're gonna h underline
17:59
highlight bold that word estimates but we're going to talk about the study because I was having a grand time
18:05
looking into this so the study was specifically I always mention the titles
18:11
because I feel like anytime I see an article they always only base the research studies off of the article the
18:18
titles so the title of the study is excess mortality associated with elevated body weight in the USA by state
18:24
and demographic subgroup a modeling study and at first I'm like why are they used using a study that's like
18:31
analyzing State distribution of people being overweight in demographics like
18:36
yeah that's it was confusing to me this article is published in April 2022 I
18:44
will not it's an observational study which is very important to note there's no control groups no experiment
18:51
conducted all the data is based off of a self-reported survey all very
18:57
important what things I will note in the article they quoted individual level
19:03
mortality risks were modeled accounting for demographics smoking history in BMI adjusted for self-report bias the
19:10
demographics included were state where they lived race and sex and then they
19:16
looked at like if they have a history of smoking and then they looked at their BMI but then they adjusted it for self-reporting
19:23
bias I was a little confused how they were going to adjust the they explained
19:28
how they adjust it but I didn't really understand how they adjusting it
19:35
interesting though but they use a Sur a survey and of course I'm like blinking on the specific type of bias that can
19:42
come from this where you're like I was like performance bias maybe where you're responding with what you think they want
19:49
to hear but there's definitely a lot of room for bias when it's someone being
19:54
self self-reporting information and that's all you are basing your information off of the statistical
20:01
analysis of essentially what was increasing mortality rate was looking at
20:06
specifically BMI versus smoking history it wasn't like it was like comparing the
20:11
two and then also looking at if they have a high BMI in a history of smoking and specifically they were
20:18
looking at like excess mortality rates excess deaths loss of life expectancy by
20:24
state and the subgroups essentially age and race there were no mentions of dietary habits no mentions of physical
20:30
activity levels no mentions of financial status no mentions of accessibility to food anything like
20:37
that and there was where was it oh they
20:43
actually mentioned there were two sentences from a limitation
20:48
standpoint they mentioned the words that they weren't able to take into account
20:54
for these the mortality risks were the differential Health Care access quality
21:01
of care and systematic RAC racism I was like okay they acknowledged it they
21:08
acknowledged it for like two sentences and then went on to forget it and then still use the same title yeah yeah yeah
21:14
that it's your body they just threw that in there covering the bases the entire
21:20
article uses lingo and Hannah and I like emphasize this because we went to a
21:26
research University Purdue drilled our brain how to use re research articles
21:31
like we can like literally rip anything apart because we were getting graded on it and we were gting tested how well we
21:38
could like be critical of a research article the entire article uses lingo
21:44
like associated with and estimates and this is because it's an observational study what that means is they are taking
21:53
data and kind of looking at it and making assumptions between
21:59
changes that might not necessarily have any effect on each other it's very much they know that if
22:06
they mentioned the health care access quality of care all that oh yeah oh yeah and it's a very much brings up
22:13
correlation versus coration I was like screaming that in my head this entire article
22:19
and so that's something really important to not it's an observational study they're saying associated with estimates
22:25
estimates like nothing cost because is observational you can't know there was
22:30
no control group or anything I will note something interesting to me is their limitations this is always one of the
22:35
first places I look when study or who's funding it or yes or who's funding it
22:42
and they know they had small sample sizes for certain subgroups they had
22:47
they were unable to analyze income they were unable to analyze physical activity
22:53
and fitness levels and everything was based off of short-term mortality rates
22:59
they're very self-aware very self-aware normally they're pretty self-aware in the limitations but everyone who reports
23:05
on the research ignores that section exactly they're definitely referencing
23:10
This research article for the title and the like conclusion is like
23:16
their final conclusion is we estimate the excess weight has a large impact on
23:22
mortality this is why you can't just like read a title and use it to back up a claim unless you actually read the
23:28
study and made sense of it yeah we've talked about this a lot how
23:35
we can't automatically blame death disease on body weight
23:41
without discussing all of the other things that can impact that it's not black and white exactly
23:48
which ties into our next quote unless you have other thoughts on the study you want to talk about I'm good you're
23:53
researched out that was a great breakdown I think that's important for everyone to know because yeah you see that study and you're like oh yeah if
24:00
you're fat you're going to die early yeah but even the researchers mentioned all the
24:05
limitations but you likely wouldn't know that unless you are reading that section of the article and also like the lingo
24:12
use like associated with and estimates like because we are so used to being in
24:19
a research like heavy world we know how to like pick up on those differences but if like you didn't read you haven't like
24:28
ever read a research article you might not know and there yeah exactly there's
24:33
plenty of people who haven't had the same education as us obviously yeah who don't go to school for science yeah H
24:41
well speaking of weight and disease we do have a whole episode of course we'll link below but the next quote says from
24:49
a dietitian Okay Kevin C clatt A
24:55
registered dietitian and research scientist and instructor at the University of of California at Berkeley says anti-diet Advocates who deny the
25:02
connection between excess body fat and chronic disease have quote madeup stuff that is a fantasy and total fairy
25:10
tale we here's what I G say about this we are not denying that your weight and disease can
25:18
have some connection we just know the difference between correlation and causation and that it's not as simple as just quote
25:25
unquote excess body fat equals having all these diseases is there's a little thing known as
25:31
nuance and also all these different things that play a role on our health that's not just our body size so we're
25:37
not just like up in la la land saying like eat whatever you want weigh whatever you
25:42
want any weight that you're at is your healthiest or any weight that you're at is good for you like we're just saying
25:49
that it's not as simple as saying the opposite either that if your weight is at a certain BMI your health is at risk
25:55
we don't know that for sure and it's also like it's not black and white and it's
26:03
not just nutrition and your weight exactly also I'm looking at his LinkedIn
26:10
of course you are of course and I don't know if he's ever been a practicing dietitian I think he
26:16
just went straight into research so he might be a little bit out of touch with reality Kevin that
26:23
explains a lot it makes sense because we talked about in our obesity as a disease episode that research is so weight
26:30
focused like weight loss research is so heavily funded because of the Obesity
26:38
epidemic that there's just like so much science supporting like looking into why all of
26:44
us are getting fatter and so like funding around it exactly exactly so this guy's mostly a
26:51
researcher it makes sense that he hasn't actually worked with people in larger bodies and discussed all the different
26:57
things that come along with with that yes speaking of motivational interviewing Kevin C clat likely as
27:06
not super duper up to par on that one you might need to review that yeah let's
27:12
talk about our next quote it's just so fun I'm I'm tired I'm I went through an
27:19
emotional day because of this article where it was like very much like I feel like I went through like the
27:26
stages of grief it was like denial anger yeah sadness I
27:34
don't know the order and then I got to acceptance and then I justess got re-trigger I was finally feeling good
27:40
earlier I was like who cares just an article but now they were like re talking about it I'm like mad again yeah
27:48
I think we'll get to a place though I'm manifesting this for the end of our episode where we just kind of accept
27:54
that I have a very that I'm not going to say it now because I'm I was very proud
28:00
of myself my little comparison you have a profound statement to make I'm excited I wouldn't say that but um that this is
28:08
not surprising essentially that's where I kind of reached with my level of
28:14
acceptance but we'll talk about that later you'll have to wait till the end for my very exciting thought but the next quote
28:20
anyway so they say the anti-diet approach essentially shifts
28:25
accountability for the health why can't I say anything because we're
28:31
mad this one pissed me off okay the anti-diet approach essentially shifts
28:36
accountability for the Health crisis away from the food industry for creating ultra-processed junk Foods lad in with
28:44
food additives sugars and artificial sweeteners no it it's Shifting the blame
28:51
away from the consumer and blaming it on diet culture that's like exactly the big
28:57
thing with the anti diet approach it's not and sometimes sometimes the food
29:03
industry does play into diet culture and yeah like feeds into that and that's a
29:08
problem but it's not it's not about like the specific
29:17
food we're not like putting on these like rose-colored glasses and saying like these ultr processed junk foods are
29:24
so so so good for you no one's saying that we're saying you can eat them it's
29:29
not going to completely destroy your health to have a bowl of cereal and in fact those Foods happen to
29:34
be the most accessible a lot of times they serve a purpose they're
29:40
convenient oftentimes cheaper and I don't know if you've been living under a
29:47
rock Washington Post but the econom is not doing
29:53
well and poverty like is a very big issue food accessibility food and secet
30:00
security like food deserts people can't just like go to their Whole Foods or
30:07
they airwan I don't know what the Bouie stores are besides Whole Foods um
30:14
but and pick out their fresh apples every single day so that they have the
30:21
most highest nutritious Foods ever that's not realistic no and this econom
30:28
be Emily and I both work with patients who like the only food they are able to
30:34
get is from like a food bank or something similar Y where they have very little choice in what they're actually
30:39
buying and these quote ultr processed junk foods are going to be a lot cheaper
30:45
and more accessible for them to actually get their hands on so they can feed themselves which is so much better for your health than not eating anything at
30:51
all which is the alternative for some of these people yeah the thing is too like
30:57
people know that eating a bowl of Captain Crunch is not as health promoting as eating I don't know a salad
31:04
like people know that and that's a big issue with like these so-called Health helpers of like oh we're just trying to
31:10
help you eat healthier by telling you what you need to know we're educating that's not what's actually
31:16
happening people know that veggies are good for you except for the you know the carnivore crowd
31:21
whatever what people don't know enough of is the risks of dieting and what
31:27
happens if you act intentionally like cut out these foods and you have a fear of these Foods that's what the anti-diet
31:33
movement is about it's not that we're promoting eating more of these we are bringing to we're bringing
31:39
awareness to the fact that you don't need to be scared of eating these that makes sense it's just like
31:45
not they're not saying quite the right thing H this one made me so mad I hated
31:51
this one I like how felt like I was having an aneurysm this
31:58
so mad I was like what is happening what okay let's move on the next I feel like
32:04
the next one also this one made me honestly a little bit more peeved me too I have a quote or
32:12
I have a statement I want to make about this one I'm so mad okay let me say it quote I think it is really reprehensible
32:19
for the food industry to pray on the vulnerabilities of people who suffer from diabetes or obesities diabetes or
32:26
obesity or diseases that are caused by excessive sugar fat and perhaps other ingredients that do them harm BL
32:32
Blumenthal said to tell people they should be proud of eating the wrong things that's hardly doing them a
32:39
service who are you Blumenthal to make this statement he's uh he's the senator
32:46
of Connecticut I literally was like what are your credentials why are they
32:53
quoting this guy what what was that email sent to him that was like we need
32:58
a quote for you regarding obesity and processed foods and dietitians what are your thoughts
33:04
Senator those last part of that statement is really what like I was like
33:11
okay these are my thoughts on some you go you go first you go first as someone who works in eating disorder recovery we
33:18
quite literally celebrate when a client is like eating a food that is quote unquote processed bad for you unhealthy
33:25
not because I am like promoting them getting obese but because I know that them
33:31
having an eating disorder is worse for their health than them eating the sugar the fat the other harmful ingredients
33:37
that Blumenthal is apparently so worried about like yeah he's right we actually
33:43
do want our people to be proud of eating these things because for so long they've literally been scared of eating them as
33:51
a result of disorder eating or eing disorder and as we always say mental health is health and eating disorder is
33:57
the number two killer in the mental health
34:02
Arena it's so crazy to me it's like they're mad that we are not
34:09
food shaming and exactly they're upset that the stereotypes around dieticians
34:17
are not are no longer like withholding themselves and way we aren the food
34:23
police exactly like there's plenty of those out there let us do something let us do something different
34:31
it doesn't matter if it's not the same as every other health influencer out there like let us do what we know what we were trained to
34:37
do which may not exactly line up with what you think that a health professional should be doing clearly
34:43
we're doing something very wrong if our health industry is the way it is so forgive us for going against the grain a
34:48
little bit and trying something new and seeing what happens ah the way he said suffer from
34:55
obesity I hate that like you're body is suffrage it's a problem it's so bad
35:01
there were so many times they would just like throw throughout not just him but also throughout the article where they
35:07
just like throw out chronic conditions and like slip obesity in there with them and I'm
35:13
like so we need to have have we mentioned this we have an episode on BMI
35:18
everything in this article is based off of BMI like literally everything from
35:24
like the Articles the research articles what they are referring to as excess
35:30
body weight there's no mentions of like any other physical health parameters like we could
35:37
even look at like body fat percentage that'd be crazy if we looked at that
35:42
it's never mentioned anything else like BMI is a very flawed tool we talk about
35:48
this all the time go listen to our article we talk about a lot more but like essentially like it has been well known that BMI is
35:56
not a good determinant of health or determinant really of anything because the guy who
36:02
founded it literally said please don't use this as a diagnostic tool like please don't because I discovered this
36:09
tool by assessing a bunch of white dudes and that's literally it yeah he's like
36:14
might mess around but like please don't take it seriously and here we are hundreds of years L grave and he's like
36:20
oh [ __ ] they're using it for a lot of bad things yeah in the name of Health yeah but that's literally the tool that
36:26
we use today agnos the disease of obesity this tool that we know is not actually a good tool
36:33
yeah but we're going to call OB a disease using that One Singular
36:40
criteria oh God all right our next one's about
36:45
intuitive eating specifically yeah so the quote is quote intuitive
36:52
eating urges followers to listen to their internal cues about hunger and is fre used to help people with Eden
37:01
disorders this was all they said about it there was like no they didn't go in
37:07
more in depth like intuitive eating has been
37:12
around for decades at this point I think like almost like 30 plus years it's older than us yeah yeah oh my gosh I
37:19
think it was 95 when it founded yeah and this approach like there's it's
37:25
not perfect there's a lot lot of nuance that it does not cover there a lot of room for improvement but it's a lot
37:32
better than the old approaches where it's just like policing people and
37:38
shaming them and being mean that's but the entire
37:45
like it just like baffled me how intuitive eating like they mention it but like to explain what it is that gets
37:52
one sentence that's to listen to internal cues and it helps people eating
37:58
disorders that's what we're always talking about is how intuitive eating again it has its flaws it's it's the way
38:05
it's portrayed is not there's not enough Nuance to it but like we're always talking about how it gets misunderstood
38:11
on social media this is why this is why they think it's just like hunger and
38:16
fullness and eating disorders when actually in reality depending on the type of eating disorder and the severity
38:22
of it we're not even using intuitive eating for that yeah because it's not a there some
38:30
exactly but that would we'd have to be talking about new ones and we can't do
38:36
that here apparently and also how food shaming if they're if they're so concerned about eating
38:43
disorders the quote food shaming I think should also be addressed a little bit more in detail and how that's probably
38:48
what's causing the Eating Disorders in park yeah okay up next I got a little bit
38:55
Mama Berry um they called out some of our our friends our dietitian friends specifically we've had on the
39:01
podcast yeah so if you've been a tbud for a while Cara harb Street has been on
39:08
here she's talked about athletes intuitive eating she's talked about MSG um we love her she's great obviously
39:16
we're biased obviously we are biased we are going to link her episodes
39:21
if you'd like to listen to them but they included her video of her eating Cheerios
39:27
and talking about how this was like a nostalgic food because she used to eat it while growing up and then she talks
39:33
about how I think like she mentioned vitamin D and maybe e but she was talking about nutritional
39:39
benefits of cereal and why she eats in his house it's nostalgic and they like
39:44
you would have thought she told you to go eat fentol or something or that she said eat this cereal or I'm going to
39:50
kill your family like yeah she just said I like cereal you might like it too and it's okay to eat it yeah
40:02
fol yeah that's funny they also attack
40:08
Colleen Colleen Christensen also been on our podcast forever ago that was a long
40:13
time ago and they included like a video of her eating low calorie ice cream or
40:21
talking about eating low calorie ice cream compared to eating like a full
40:26
fat regular Cal ice cream yeah and callena they both do a lot of discussion
40:33
around like food fear and like it's okay
40:39
to eat food that maybe isn't quote unquote beus houseful I was a little
40:46
confused about what they were saying about Colleen because I was getting the impression they were saying that she was being a
40:52
hypocrite by saying it's okay to eat regular ice cream and then other video
40:58
saying it's okay to have like a Premier Protein or something I think they were trying to like bash that we sometimes do
41:04
eat diet foods or promote diet foods but also promote the Alternatives it was interest it was odd
41:11
it was I was very confused as well because I first I was like oh they're
41:17
hating on the quote unquote more healthy option she's telling you to eat the bad option but then then they list all these
41:25
Branch she's worked with and I'm like what is so confused I'm like is this
41:31
saying what I I feel like it was just trying to say like oh she supports all these bad Brands it's kind of like what
41:38
the vibe I was getting was like whenever I post that I prefer a diet soda I get tons of questions asking why which is
41:43
fair because I'm a so-called anti-diet dietitian why don't I just drink regular
41:49
soda and I feel like it was that same concern with Colleen's content they were
41:54
like why is she eating ice cream but also eating these like diety Foods too
41:59
that's what food freedom is like you can make the choice to eat any of them based on whatever makes you feel the best or we have access to or
42:05
whatever the next One cracked me up okay so if you guys don't know there
42:11
is this giant Conference held every year for dieticians it's like the biggest get together for all of us it's like in a different place in the United States
42:17
every year it's called finy the food and nutrition conference in Expo and at the
42:23
very top of this article you see assumably a dietitian going down a slide
42:29
at the Cheerios station at the Expo which Emily and I did too when we
42:36
went in 2022 right yeah which will include a picture on the screen if you're watching on YouTube
42:43
but the authors of this article seem to be upset about this event happening and
42:49
they said quote I can't even say it it's so goofy so goofy oh my gosh
42:58
quote dietitians noshed on vegetarian quote Bogi samples from beyond meat and
43:04
a pumpkin spice loaf made with sugar substitute Splenda the
43:10
horror so this also gave me the vibe about Colleen right like they're saying that we should only be eating if we're
43:16
going to be anti-diet dieticians we should only be eating pizza seral ice cream not use things
43:24
like Splenda or beyond meat because those are diet food Foods those good against what we believe in exactly
43:30
apparently which is so confusing because if we're being paid by big sugar or whatever why are we going to a
43:36
conference that's sponsored by Beyond me and all these like diet foods
43:43
yeah making it make sense I word Ned had me cackling I was like what is
43:52
happening also they typed in like eating synonym into Google to figure that out
43:59
they're like yes this will get them us noshing around oh my gosh our last quote
44:05
that we have is this this one we don't we're going to go too much in depth I
44:11
was just like at this point I'm like quote your sources another one thank
44:16
you they said Health experts say the most worrisome Trend among anti-diet
44:21
influencers is the alarming amount of misinformation they spread including claims that excess weight is in a health
44:28
risk one list a health expert list your Source Who are the health
44:35
experts yes are they people because these are journalists like yeah these
44:43
aren't experts in nutrition who are writing this article and even the people they quote
44:48
aren't even except like the one dietitian who obviously has a hatred towards B
44:54
people they rarely are listing Health experts from talking about things like this no oh my gosh the most worrisome
45:04
Trend what about the ones who are promoting disordered eating isn't that a little bit worrisome to you Sasha and
45:11
Caitlyn and whoever else is a journalist on this article the people that are causing
45:18
people to develop e disorders and themselves are we allowed to say this on
45:25
YouTube are we gon I'll bleep it don't worry what do the little like sound oh
45:32
perfect thank you sorry sorry future Hannah the misinformation being spread like granted like there it says
45:38
anti-diet influencers that's what makes me most mad because it's not just dietitians who are adapting this Behavior like there are obviously people
45:45
who are utilizing this and using it for their own personal
45:52
gain that's completely happening and to cell weight loss which is the opposite of what they say that we do
45:59
yeah but if we look at like the anti-diet approach to the
46:06
core we're it comes down to like not being afraid to eat certain things and
46:14
we're trying to encourage you not to restrict and hate your body and yourself
46:20
and be stressed about food and like speaking of like that when they say the risk of excess weight how it's a health
46:28
risk and we don't identify that or talk about that what we talk about is how pursuing
46:33
intentional weight loss to get rid of that risky excess weight that's a risk in itself and we
46:40
also don't have a evidence-based sustainable approach for intentional
46:45
weight loss that we know is going to actually work in the long term we're talking about it in so much more we're
46:51
so much more deep into the subject than what they could ever even consider in the Washington Post
46:57
no like they're just like at the Baseline like the scratch on the surface saying that weight equals bad but like
47:06
what we're actually doing online at least I know I have tunnel vision seeing mostly like good anti- dieticians but
47:13
what we're talking about is like much deeper than that we're actually going below the surface level of weight equals
47:19
bad but they don't address that at all in this article and then like you mentioned in the next Point like how
47:24
correlation is on equal causation we're also saying stuff like that that was of course never once in the article that
47:30
was like the entire thing was it was like giving off the energy of like oh look all these chronic conditions are
47:36
becoming more prevalent and look there's more prevalence in the anti-diet space there has to be a
47:42
correlation it's got to be their we not like there have been so many times in
47:49
history where things were happening at the same time and it didn't mean they
47:55
were correlated have you seen the example of like every summer people eat more ice cream and
48:02
they also there's also an increased drowning at the same time every year there's an incidence of drowning and
48:08
there's also people eating more ice cream and so the crowd who says that weight equals unhealthy is the same
48:15
crowd who would say that eating ice cream causes drowning it's no it's separate things
48:22
happening at the same time so okay let's talk about the authors there were four
48:27
authors on this article first one is Sasha cha
48:33
shavin they've written five articles attacking dietitians recently because you can look at what other articles they
48:39
wrote this guy really hates dietitians he's a fan I bet he got broken up by one
48:45
once or something or he really like got in an argument with one or like
48:51
commented something and they didn't respond he's like yeah that's it but
48:56
essentially I looked into I don't think you guys care about the education I don't know if I really do after looking
49:03
into all this but like he has like a MERS in like investigative reporting and
49:09
Latin American studies from with the bachelors and I also try to look into
49:14
like things they spoke out in the past and all he kind of talks about which like honestly sounds more interesting to me than what he's talking about now is
49:21
he's reported on like environmental issues political corruption in Latin America the role and the role of money
49:27
and special interests in politics leave alone these are his main focus areas
49:33
that he used to work on I'm like talk about these These are way more interesting and also like for what you
49:40
have like a little bit experiencing like the political corruption in Latin America where you have Latin American
49:46
studies as Bachelors of Arts like you may be a little bit more qualified to speak on that and I know like reporters
49:52
don't have to have background and everything they talk about but like
49:58
then bring on people who are qualified because we know that dietitians were reached out to about this article and
50:03
they were not included in the article we can say who they have a a podcast out about it so we had yeah they just posted
50:11
a podcast about the same article that we have we had what the actual Fork on a while back we'll link their episode
50:17
below but Sam one of the co-hosts of the podcast she made a video about being
50:23
reached out to by the authors of this article and didn't even like use her information because of course it didn't
50:28
align with their agenda their top their agenda yeah their topics cuz she's she's a full-fledged
50:36
Haze anti-diet dietitian and they did not like that what she had to say our next one is
50:42
Caitlyn Gilbert Caitlyn is one of the reporters being tasked with posting on
50:48
Tik Tok right now I don't know if you've seen this no it's like new it's like the past like 24 hours this has come out
50:54
they they made a Tik Tok because of all the misinformation they're spreading about this
51:00
article so they're trying to like backpedal or what no they're trying to like double down okay um highly
51:07
recommend well I highly recommend you watching it I don't know if you guys like really care about Clara made the
51:13
reason I found it is because Clara made like direct um Clara did a very good job your
51:19
dietitian BFF did very good did a very good job of responding to these this Tik Tok o like a stitch kind of thing MH o
51:27
and then of course you got like attacked for like bullying of course but kayn is
51:33
one of the ones that is now having to deal with the backlash on Tik Tok um but her background is in
51:39
neurobiology and Neuroscience and her past his like history and journalism has
51:44
been past history work very much like in the health Feld or past history in the
51:51
journalism area is in like the economy politics and abortion access and I'm like not really
51:58
anything nutrition related what and once again like those topics maybe are
52:04
worthwhile writing about too yeah she does I don't know I didn't read her articles maybe she does talk about that Mar but still but it was an
52:11
interesting twist to come here our next reporter also has been tasked with
52:17
making Tik toks on Jolly's suie sui maybe I'm sorry if I'm saying your last
52:24
name wrong but they their education is in English and journalism and I couldn't really find much about what they used to
52:30
write about besides just covering quote unquote Global health I mean it makes sense that these
52:36
would all be journalists like who are getting hired at the Washington Post to write articles yeah but I was like
52:42
looking into like what they used to talk about and yeah only Sasha really has
52:47
beef with us but the last one might be the most important one okay so anahad '
52:54
Conor background in Psychology and Neuroscience he has two books he's
53:01
actually a best-selling author if you didn't know bestselling author where he has a book called The 10 things you need
53:07
to eat and another book called lose it the personalized weight loss resolution
53:12
I wish we had time to read these and talk about how hypocritical these books are compared to
53:19
what his article said yeah but there was no conflict of
53:24
interest mentioned at all throughout the article that someone has books that
53:29
directly profit from what they are saying in the article
53:35
right and like he can say here's 10 things you need to eat as a psychologist or having a degree in Psychology but us
53:42
anti-d anti-diet dietitians cannot say that maybe it's okay if you have some cereal once in a while he's saying you
53:49
have to eat this and we're saying H if you want to have some cereal have some cereal but we're the problem it's oh
53:56
I've back at anger I'm backtracking in my grieving
54:02
process dang okay well then I can't talk a lot about this next point because I didn't know you haven't seen the Tik Tok
54:08
no I gotta go watch these I'll give you the quick summary I'll give you guys a quick summary of it because I'm sure
54:13
more is going to come out of it but they like last 24 48 hours they
54:21
posted a Tik Tok about this article trying to like clear up misinformation and the two things that I got out of it
54:28
the most where they state that anti-diet dieticians are saying poror nutrition has nothing to do with chronic
54:34
conditions they literally like say that they're like trying to clarify that and
54:40
then they give no video or source of where this is coming from that we are saying nutrine has nothing to do with
54:46
your chronic conditions no anti-diet Rd has ever said those words we've never
54:52
ever said that food has no role on health oh my God the other thing they explicitly say
54:59
which just blew my mind was that they don't want to food shame
55:04
anyone they don't believe in food chaming they think it's not real that weting obesity oh my God but their
55:11
entire article just reeks of it and I'm like I don't even think they know what it is I don't think they know what food
55:16
shaming is no but you it the comments were an interesting
55:23
mix there was a decent amount like saying like you don't know what you're talking about like please stop and then there were
55:30
some that were just like thanks for speaking on this like not anything too exciting yeah but oh my God okay I know
55:36
I'll be doing tonight it was definitely you should definitely Stitch it yeah I don't have
55:43
the level headedness to stitch it but you're much more levelheaded than I am I might have to wait a day maybe tomorrow
55:49
I'll be able to handle that yeah but that's the most recent update
55:57
oh okay let's end on a positive note and talk about how great Cal is yes and
56:02
we're not being paid to say this no one's sponsoring this podcast episode my God no I wish they were to be honest I
56:09
like cereal I'd love to get make made extra money for the same thing I'd still say whether or not I was paid or not
56:17
that part but first and foremost cereal is relatively cheap and
56:23
accessible and we all know how the econom is doing right now so cereal love an affordable shoes yes
56:31
we do cereal is often a safe food for many people and like I always say eating
56:36
cereal is better than eating nothing I once made a whole video about that that went viral which is fortunate and
56:43
unfortunate because the comments were atrocious but like I literally was saying that I would rather a patient
56:49
client whoever eat a bowl of cereal for like let's say lunch than to skip that meal and you would have thought
56:57
I was holding guns to heads it's crazy oh man it's it is crazy have
57:05
something like that just like eating something is better than nothing like
57:10
you think we're like we're feeding you rat poison and
57:16
like a lot of comments too were like I'm promoting obesity by saying that and they're like saying oh why wouldn't you
57:21
just take the time to make like you know a well balanced lunch I'm like you clearly are living a very nice
57:27
privileged life and or not reading between the lines here yeah I'm not saying every single day eat a bowl of
57:33
cereal at lunch unless you have access to then by all means like I want you to eat
57:38
that I don't know I don't know I'm a broken record I'm tired of seeing the same things over and over and over again
57:44
and still we get articles like this on a every six-month basis yeah um next thing to know is a
57:52
lot of cereals are fortified with vitamins and minerals which is really great yes yeah which is like really
57:59
great in case like this is all you can afford thanks to food
58:05
science they've been able to add in some extra vitamins and minerals for you if you aren't able to get it elsewhere and
58:11
can't afford it they're usually a good source of like a lot of B vitamins iron
58:16
which is a very common nutrient people are deficient in and depending on the cereal you can get some Fiber from that
58:23
too there's also just like naturally occurring nutrients even fortified if you're someone who is like anti fortification for whatever reason some
58:30
Cal will just like have naturally occurring nutrients in there too which goes for our next point it also has
58:35
carbs and then if you're adding like let's say some cow's milk to it you're also getting protein and possibly some fat as well so you're getting all three
58:42
macronutrients it's a pretty balanced meal or snack if you ask me if you can add a banana and some nuts to it maybe
58:49
to like even more beef it up a little bit cool but like it's it's it's why are
58:56
we choosing cereal to be the food that we're hating on like there's so many other foods that don't even have the nutrients that cereal has I don't get
59:02
why we're choosing cereal to be the boogeyman here but whatever it's fine a lot of hate it does and the last thing
59:10
is just convenience and how quickly you can make it yeah because time is a resource not
59:18
everyone has not everyone privileged to have we need to have a discussion with
59:23
everyone checking their privilege I that just like really makes me mad I I'm
59:29
H thankful for my clinical experience because I've worked with people who actually like go through these things
59:36
and so it's really helped make me better a better dietician honestly I feel like I've worked with the Polar
59:44
Opposites so that has made me a little bit jaded yeah I don't and I don't want
59:50
to like forgive these people and say like oh they don't they don't know what's going on they don't know what the poor people are dealing with
59:57
like your a little bit wider go outside and talk to someone and interact with
1:00:03
other people you you'll get outside your privilege bubble quite quickly yeah like
1:00:10
we both minator privileges before on here like we didn't we didn't know we had it until we we learned better like
1:00:17
now we know better because we opened our eyes a little bit got our hands a little dirty and we're not perfect but now we
1:00:23
like are able to acknowledge those things versus is using them against people and making them feel
1:00:29
bad let's wrap it up because I'm o is this gonna be where
1:00:35
you're I forgot about it oh my gosh oh I'll I'll end on that I'll end on that
1:00:41
okay but remind me because I completely forgot about until you said it okay okay remind me at the end of this well final
1:00:47
thoughts this article we always joke about like as dietitians how we're always shamed for being paid by big food
1:00:54
and burning obesity this episode or this article was just like the epitome of
1:01:00
that it's like all of it coming together in one succinct little article
1:01:05
throughout the entire article we I wanted to note that like there's no mention of Enos the Enos sorder crisis
1:01:12
there was no mention of in food insecurity the housing crisis where people go to school trauma access to high quality Health Care there's no
1:01:19
mention essentially really of mental health or social determins of Health at all like you can't you can't go on a
1:01:27
little rant about health and completely ignore these and wait too like you can't
1:01:33
talk about someone's weight being a problem without mentioning all the reasons why their weight could be what
1:01:39
it is aside from even genetics and food like all of the things you just mentioned can also contribute to a
1:01:44
person's body size also but instead they just say the body size is what's causing
1:01:50
the health problems not any of these things that maybe are causing a certain body size but also causing health
1:01:56
problems yeah it's like you're missing that that piece that link that connects it all together and overall we're anti-
1:02:02
dietitians are not anti-health or emphasizing that like
1:02:08
like Hannah said like Hannah just said nutrition is not the only determinant of Health weight is not the only determinant of Health there's so much
1:02:14
more to it and also I was a little peeved I don't know how you felt about this that like food companies and
1:02:21
dietitians were being put on the same level I'm like I have plenty of beef with food companies like there are a lot
1:02:27
of Say Yes like we are not like when
1:02:33
you're in the food industry you're going to interact with each other like that's who who are dieticians going to partner
1:02:39
up with like they prefer no one that we don't
1:02:44
make any money Sears like we're gonna partner up with
1:02:50
food and there are a lot of companies that are
1:02:56
adapting anti-diet lingo and abusing it oh for we talk all the time lately like
1:03:02
this whole season we've talking about that like how all these different diet companies and food companies supplement
1:03:08
companies are misconstruing what anti-diet actually is and that leads me
1:03:13
to my final thought you actually brought me right into that where I was like Washington Post you are on such a high
1:03:21
horse about looking out for the general public and our
1:03:26
health and you're shaming you're food shaming and you are
1:03:34
monetizing like you are making money off of people's insecurities right now while
1:03:39
trying to adapt these like oh for the Tik Tok we don't want to food shame anyone you are no better than the
1:03:48
diet companies that adapt anti-diet Behavior the wellness influencers that
1:03:54
are incredibly toxic and adapt anti-diet Behavior and the food companies CU there's a lot of them that also adapt
1:04:01
this like you are just contributing to the problem and you are no better than any of these other
1:04:07
companies I a great way to end the [Music] episode I'm over it I think I'm reaching
1:04:14
acceptance again because I'm still pissed I feel bad you have to edit this
1:04:20
because I know it's it's really going to re-trigger it
1:04:27
oh this one's poorly edited because I zoomed through it just so you guys know just kidding I wouldn't do that I'll put
1:04:33
in quality work but I will be re-trigger and re angri you're trying to say you're
1:04:40
looking out for health but you're not you're that's the funny thing about healthism it's like you think you are
1:04:46
making everyone healthier by saying things like this but you're just part of the problem you're contributing to the
1:04:51
problem too yeah yeah you are the foundation of what diet culture is and
1:04:57
why we are working so hard to be against it it's just like I don't know forget it I don't care
1:05:04
anymore maybe I am paid by big cereal sue me the thing is if we're paid by big
1:05:11
cereal we would not be having multiple jobs
1:05:17
right we would not have multiple income screams we just have one and it' just be our little job paid by big cereal but
1:05:24
it's not because we aren't paid by big cereal no and if we are working with a
1:05:29
cereal brand like Cara did it's because she genuinely likees
1:05:35
cereal and it doesn't one post does not mean that they are like now in cahoots
1:05:43
with cereal yeah Lally one
1:05:49
Post Yeah there's plenty of Brands I've literally done like one piece of content for and never talk to again
1:05:56
yeah and I might still use that product but I'm not being paid to still use it I
1:06:02
I just like it which is why I made the post in the first place and agreed to work with them what's sad about this is
1:06:07
I think most of people listening this to this already know and support us and all of this information I hope this reaches
1:06:14
the audience that it needs to reach people who are in the comments of the Wasing Washington Post article and saying like yeah F dieticians hopefully
1:06:22
this video get gets to there for you page yeah that' be great F they 50k
1:06:29
salaries all right we're goingon to let you guys go CA we de simmer down we need
1:06:34
to go calm down and we're going to go talk about something fun in our bonus question and it'll be much more happy
1:06:40
over there so definitely go listen on Spotify otherwise we'll see you guys next week bye guys

The Beet Deets Bonus Segment

Listen to our ad-free premium content and support the podcast for a low monthly cost!

In this week's bonus episode, Emily and Hannah decide to continue the trend of "Big Cereal" and talk about their favorite cereals. The girls discuss their childhood favorites and rediscover a major nostalgic cereal that they both ate. Hannah shares her absolute least favorite cereal and Emily talks about her mortifying food choices during one of her first dinners with Bobby's parents. Tune in for more!