Why unhealthy carbs are making you sick, and what to do about it | Prof. Walter Willett

[@wendy1908]

This was one of the best episodes I've seen on zoe, and I've seen them all. Congratulations zoe on this fabulous interview. I'm an Australian dietitian and am going to suggest this episode to all of my patients as I feel it summarises what to eat in a concise easy to understand science based way. Kudos to zoe and to the legend Walter Willett

[@davidr1431]

You had me at “I’m a dietician”.

[@csmith5611]

One of the worst episodes. So disappointing.

[@gilthompson5209]

Concise?

[@littlevoice_11]

Regarding sugar, many point out juice and Fizzy drinks but increasingly people are consuming sugary coffees - frappunccinos, hot chocolate, mochas, lattes - they have quickly become part of the food culture in western countries. There are coffee chains on every street and its common to see people effectively drinking dessert without knowing it

[@allisonal]

True! No nutritional label ever gets viewed or even tabulated when it’s a barista doing custom pumps of syrups.

[@MS-sd1uz]

Liquid carbs and cookies certainly are an issue but bread hides in plain sight and is equally concerning. we can't just consume convenience food carelessly. It will cause issues sooner or later. Everyone is responsible for their own health. I don't think we can fix society at this point anymore, everyone is brainwashed

[@nirui467]

Don’t forget bubble teas

[@fionasilk]

@@allisonal Here in the UK we have the calories of drinks on the menu in places like Starbucks. At the end of the day it's up to people to educate themselves

[@davidalderson7761]

I suspect the quantity of sugar in a fizzy drink is hugely greater than a sugar in coffee.

[@anhta31]

I think it would be really helpful if you guys could ask guests about where the grant funding comes from and if they are sponsored, advised or are advising industry

[@just_jen]

Yes!! These are exactly the questions that need to be asked. In fact, it should be standard disclosure any time anyone mentions a study.

[@pynn1000]

@@just_jenYour idea is interesting, but I'm unsure. Do you mean "pop science" shows like this one should list sponsors of the study used, just as is required for published science? We all have easy access to at least abstracts.

[@just_jen]

@@pynn1000 do you think the average KZbin user is digging out a specific study when someone says something as vague as 'a recent study showed xyz'? I very much doubt that. I'm not sure what to add beyond what OP and myself have already said except that people would be able to make more informed decisions about whether to trust the results of a study mentioned anywhere, including in 'pop shows' if it came with a statement about who sponsored it and what their background/motive is.

[@jorush7690]

Have a look to see where the interviewee's papers are published - if in peer reviewed well regarded journals likely better. Read meta analysis and umbrella reviews if unsure.

[@salvyv]

ZOE claims to not just be a pop science outlet but to be doing cutting edge research on nutrition. Absolutely yes, if they want to be considered ethically responsible they need to post a standard disclaimer about their guests’ funding. Otherwise they are being misleading and people may be led to make decisions that benefit others financially but which are not nutritionally sound or present an incomplete picture.

[@h-man2561]

Enjoyed another good video. 🏅 I would like to share another story of my dad that may plant seeds to do more research on two items in this lecture. My dad just missed being 97 and as a child he was sent to a German farm to replace the son who went to war in WWII. The farmer 👨‍🌾 always told the workers we'll be ok as long as we have potatoes so growing up that was a staple at that time in his youth & for the rest of his life. The way they prepared it was a bit different as my parents always rinsed them after boiling to remove the starch just before mashing them. My dad was a meat & potato eater with small amount of veggies on the side mostly from his garden in season & had a small salad at dinner. During lunch at work he mostly had three ham, cheese on kaiser rolls or rye sandwiches. After church on Sunday's we would pick up two fresh breads just out of the oven eating one on the way home. I believe the difference was eating real quality foods through his life vs todays long ingredients that are listed & rarely bought. So maybe the more real the food the longer your life. Science told us fats were bad now healthy fats are good with the reverse for carbs & someday this may change again like with coffee. What I always look for in these narratives is some kind of variance or maybe even a bias from guests vs what I've seen 1st hand with my families history on health & nutrition before I follow. My dad always walked to get things vs taking the car if he could & took care of yard for his exercise. He also slept 8 hours a day on schedule. Could it all be just be this simple? ❤💪

[@DeeFay-fl1hs]

A few years ago my GP and I were discussing the lifestyle and nutrition changes I might make during the menopause to alleviate some symptoms. She made a point that I’ve never forgotten: GPs don’t have basic nutrition in their medical training. Given that we now know that good nutrition is so fundamental to good health has this changed? If not, why not?

[@spiral-m]

It is changing, albeit very slowly. What I find incredible is that the Zoe and the other major Covid and nutrition studies have not been put out in the mainstream media.

[@DeeFay-fl1hs]

@@spiral-m Hmm so true, but of course what Zoe is describing doesn’t necessarily involve the pharmaceutical companies’ medications and who knows who they hold sway over……I think of the impact of a healthy population taking responsibility for their own health. We are still ingrained with the belief that medication is the answer. It’s my very, very last resort.

[@mbe102]

Well, hence the (G), for General Practitioner. Its also the reason you see a specialist, as someone who's dedicated their time and efforts to understanding a specific field, such as a dietitian or a nutritionist; typically both.

[@Zayrgilles]

I listened to health podcasts every day. This has got to be the worst information i ever heard. Goodnight 😴

[@Vroomfondle1066]

because...? @@Zayrgilles

[@richardteal5678]

Dr Willet's book 'Eat, Drink, and be Healthy' literally changed my life by inspiring me to go back to graduate school (in my 40s!) to study biostatistics and launching my second career. He has been on the forefront of research for decades. Seems like a lot of people in the comments didn't really listen to what he had to say, which is too bad. I would be really interested to hear more about how some of these trends could be shifted going forward.

[@bmniac4738]

Most of those who comment are blinded by their attachment to meat to see the sense in the talk

[@trishstauble3461]

Went whole food, plant based diet 6 years ago. I'm 71 now and feeling great ! My asthma disappeared !! Who knew good nutrition matters so much to us. I love being thin and healthy and energetic !! Thank you Dr. Willett and Zoe for a great conversation about the science behind healthy eating.

[@katehampshire8410]

Thank you for all these podcasts. I have changed my diet since doing the Zoe programme and keeping me up to date with research is so helpful.

[@juliesimpson2122]

Absolutely brilliant interview. Thank you so much. The government should ban ALL advertising of soda/coke/soft drinks/processed foods like they did with tobacco and cigarettes, because its all just as bad for people!

[@MS-sd1uz]

There's really wouldn't be much left of a modern supermarket if all of this was banned. But the bigger issue is: who decides what's healthy and what isn't. We have a nutri score in Germany. Cocoa puffs score exceptionally well because they're whole grain and artifially sweetened

[@pynn1000]

@@MS-sd1uzNutriscore is imperfect, based on ingredients, not amount of processing, so (e.g.)"whole grain" ingredients can come from powders from many countries. It's changing, "ultra-processed" added in a black label under the color, particularly useful for reconstituted grains.

[@nesanesa9547]

​​@@MS-sd1uzEx actly....there is hardly anything for me to buy in a supermarket!!! Zoe is the expert.....

[@tkspiece2310]

Reading some of the comments, it sounds like people have been paid to come and attack the folks at Zoe. For all those with a brain, it's very simple, after you have listened to several experts, try to apply logic and pay attention to works for your body. All I know is anything that comes in a packet and doesn't exist in nature, or has been processed beyond recognition, be that protein, fat or carbs, isn't generally something my body and health appreciate. Ultimately, if you are genuinely interested in optimal health, I don't think attacking channels that are trying to help people will feature in your life's journey. All the best folks!

[@kymfortescue6737]

The meat lobby looms large.

[@BlueYellowGreenVc]

Agreed. I think that some people don't like to think for themselves. The thing with nutrition is there are always caveats. Which is why, instead of taking any one dietitian's/expert's word as bond you should consider your own lifestyle and health concerns/goals as well. Nutrition seems contradictory (partly because of these gurus online tbh) because people don't know how to interpret the information presented to them. It's always all or nothing for them.

[@chuckleezodiac24]

wait. people get paid for attacking Zoe? i do this shit for free. sign me up!

[@tkspiece2310]

@@chuckleezodiac24 Oh no, then that's pretty sad. We can at least understand the fee earners...

[@chuckleezodiac24]

@@tkspiece2310 what's even more sad is scamming people based on expensive tracking apps and Vegan Propaganda.

[@meganmeredith2110]

This is the best Zoe podcast that I have listened to !!! And I have listened to many! Fantastic information thank you 👍

[@juliamarsh2077]

Even at 70, what you eat is going to make a difference to how you feel day to day, e.g. more energy, better bowel movements. But it is great to know that even at that age dietary changes still reduce your chances of developing certain health issues.

[@eSKAone-]

Of course when you're 95 then 70 is 25 years ago 💟🌌☮️

[@AbdelwasieKahsay]

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[@AbdelwasieKahsay]

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[@AbdelwasieKahsay]

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[@gaBetibu]

. . . I really learn so much from your highly valuable interviews, and I find this one especially hugely helpful - your questions are so highly relevant to so many of us...thank you so much for all your hard work for the good of so many . . . 🥰

[@rossmurray6849]

This podcast highlights one reason to be grateful for Americans. Big Business there has politicians so under the thumb that the toxic rubbish they are permitted to sell to the public as "food" is providing a wealth of evidence about what the rest of us should *not* be doing. 🙂

[@chuckleezodiac24]

you're welcome. America is always willing to help the lesser nations of the world.

[@bmniac4738]

@@chuckleezodiac24 Loved that esp lesser nations. Ironic!

[@jimspringer1532]

I gave up wheat and my chronic bleeding hemorrhoids went away in 2 days. 4 years no problem. This year I gave up sugar and my lifelong(55) insomnia went away the first night. Other processed foods give me allergic rashes in specific areas. When I have something with a little wheat in it I experience painful broken capillaries in the palms of my hands as well as hemorrhoid symptoms. Be aware and beware.

[@ANCarty-xh9dk]

Hi Jim, Glad things are improving, Don't know if you've already tried-howeverits worth getting checked for coeliac. It is amazing the health benefits. My migraines went away, lost 14 kilos in 3 weeks, lifelong cough went away(Non smoker)-lit goes on. I hope this is helpful to you and your family. All the best, anna

[@ANCarty-xh9dk]

However, oops😊

[@anitahernandez1207]

I think that the issues with milk are not with the milk itself but the processing of it since once it's pasteurized, it changes the benefits, like with the example of brown and white rice. It becomes devoid of enzymes and other nutrition that would assist minerals like calcium and Vitamin D.

[@14caz68]

For my first 10 yrs of life I was brought up on raw milk. But these days I never know what’s good , bad or indifferent for me.

[@suehunter5024]

Sadly milk has to be pasteurised to be safe for bulk handling and mass marketing. The potential for diseases such as Brucellosis to be spread by raw milk are are too serious to risk. Also contamination with pus from animals affected by mastitis makes mass produced milk unappealing to me. If you have a trustworthy local source of untreated milk (and can buy it legally) then do so. I worry about antibiotic resistance so restrict myself to small amounts of organic pasteurised whole milk. Short of keeping a cow I'm not sure there is a truly safe option.

[@spiral-m]

@@Beatrice-nx5ld With all respect, that is an anecdote. This guy knows his stuff and keeps abreast all the major studies. It's about populations, meta-analyses and choosing the highest quality studies not anecotes here and there. Even if it has worked for you, you are making incorrect generalisations. 70% of the world are lactose intolerant for starters! It's also appalling suffering for animals and wrecks the environment in the vast majority of cases. From a recent German study: Organic animals also get sick en masse. Translation "A similar picture emerges for other livestock: up to 39 percent of all dairy cows suffer from painful hoof diseases. Inflammation of the udder was found in every second dairy cow in an organic barn. Up to 97 percent of all laying hens have broken bones - in cages as well as in organic farming. Eggs, milk and meat from these sick animals still end up in supermarkets in large numbers, without consumers being aware of this." (not even as bad as the situation in the USA) foodwatch-report-auch-bio-tiere-masseshaft-krank/

[@sundiataq]

The bigger problem I see with marketing milk as "healthy" is that over 60% of the world's population is lactose intolerant... Regardless of the potential health benefits to those people who are able to digest it, it's pretty bad for the majority of us who can't properly digest it. If I drink a glass of milk, i feel nauseous to the point of feeling like I need to vomit, and I get cramps as if someone is stabbing me in my abdomen. Very unpleasant stuff...

[@anitahernandez1207]

@@sundiataq One reason why 60% of the world is lactose intolerant, has to do with the type of cow that is producing the milk. That goes back to again, the push to pasteurize and process milk for the purpose of shipping it safely to city populations. Milk was not designed for that. It was designed for the farm and anyone living nearby that can safely consume it. So food companies pushed scientists and politicians to change how cows produced milk and also how to breed cows to produce more milk. That’s how 60% of the worlds population became lactose intolerant. Cows that produce A1 milk produce more casein than cows that produce A2 milk.That’s why some parts of the world are not lactose intolerant because they’re drinking milk from a different cow. The pasteurization destroys the enzymes which causes other problems within a persons digestive system. In other words, the problem was never the milk or the cow. The problem was human greed, and a desire for something out of its natural environment. I’m not sure that problem can be resolved because the food industry uses milk in so many things even to make pancakes. The restaurant industry uses milk in their recipes. They’re going to keep pasteurizing it and using genetically altered cows, because the demand is high. Also, there is the cereal industry and they are not going to allow the dairy industry to go out of business, unless they can find a way to replace all the milks with nut and oat but then you have another problem with oxalates, fillers/binders which produce digestive issues, glyphosate which is still allowed to be sprayed on oat and soy crops along with the issues of estrogens from the soy. Not to mention the synthetic vitamins , sugars, oils, etc added to the cereals. The industry is too big to change overnight.

[@tmchugh]

Very enjoyable. I would like if the experts were challenged a bit more. For example, this section covers the negative effects of consuming dairy. Tim Spector has recently changed his mind on this, especially fermented dairy products.

[@gillpearson2124]

Yes, this guy seems to contradict what Tim Spectre and Sarah Berry said about how eating hard cheese and yoghurt don’t adversely affect blood cholesterol.

[@davidr1431]

I feel sorry for Tim Spector. He has hitched his wagon to plant-based eating which will be very difficult to reverse out of, but I guess he will have made his money by then.

[@katie8325]

@@davidr1431no, he hasn’t. If you read his books or listened to him speak properly he hasn’t at all. That’s your bias showing

[@davidr1431]

@@katie8325 I have read his books (or at least listened on audiobook) and listened to him regularly in the Zoe podcast (and still do). If I have bias, I’ve acquired it by being exposed to him and his work. Maybe I will change my mind in the future. Maybe you will too.

[@HealingLifeKwikly]

@@davidr1431 "I feel sorry for Tim Spector. He has hitched his wagon to plant-based eating which ..." a mountain of research proves is healthier for people and the planet.

[@chrisloynes7796]

This ought to be compulsory listening for ALL ADULTS !! Johnathan well managed and summarised too. Get. This into schools and the NHS !!!

[@veronicaroberts-williams3878]

I heard him say red meat can be bad along with other bad lifestyle factors,not necessarily the meat esp as he said they havent tested with grassfed. Which stands to reason has got to be better than youre average beef steak. And if you are paying a premium for grassfed you certainly wont be eating it every day. Also no mention of seed oils?

[@allencrider]

Oil is junk food

[@alexdevcamp]

I was under the impression that grass-fed steak doesn't have the same risk as processed meats like salami, specifically as the cause of increased heart disease and colon cancer risk.

[@britpopification]

That’s true but that’s like saying drinking a beer is like drinking a bottle of whisky.

[@wojtek1582]

Processed meat is definitely worse.

[@juliebrown8375]

Grass fed steak has a bit less saturated fat than conventional beef (which is mostly grass fed), but high intake of saturated fat is still a problem. Red meat is also high in iron which may contribute to heart disease. A "balanced diet" means that you shouldn’t go overboard on any single food source.

[@allisonal]

Check research on neu5gc. It doesn’t have reams of data behind it like was discussed in this podcast, but it’s a really interesting theory of how a biological mutation that may have prevented humans from being wiped out by malaria ages ago could have turned most mammal meat into something that is inherently risky for us to eat, due to glycome incompatibility. We’re still in early days of glycome research, so I expect to hear more about it in future decades.

[@annemccarron2281]

According to one podcaster, most American beef is 60% fat. So, if you are looking for protein, the reality is that you are getting predominantly fat.

[@innuendo4469]

I learn about nutrition from years -red books, watched all Huberman's, Attia's etc podcasts, and it's surprising that STILL I learn so much just by hearing other people's way of describing such and such matter. The part of explaining how rice is built, how undressing it from the bran, how powdering grains into flower makes the starches enter our bloodstream much quicker, was beautifully visual. Thanks

[@williamhenry3337]

Is it possible that the people in the red meat study ALSO drank beer and ate French fries, pizza and other bad stuff? Is there a study where people ate grass fed red meat and ONLY ate organic vegetables, olive oil, avocado and other healthy items (Mediterranean Diet)?

[@skippy6462]

Mediterranean diet is legumes, vegetables and fruits. Hardly any grass in the Mediterranean. Stories are getting mixed up. Grass fed is marketing bs.

[@spiral-m]

Look up Adventist study, the biggest formal nutritional study ever. They compared some of these things. Meat eaters in a fairly Health conscious population ( determined more healthy than average American) came out worst in all health markers.

[@BigSlimyBlob]

It's absolutely what happened. The questionnaire had 8 different categories of food, but none for Grain and none for Sugar (which in a study about type 2 diabetes is beyond absurd). Every time someone ate a meal consisting of a small burger with a tiny beef patty in it along with a large fries, large soda and deep-fried apple pie, that meal went into one of the "meat" category. The study was designed to blame red meat for the damage caused by aggressive carbs. And this man put his name on the study.

[@williamhenry3337]

@@spiral-m keep drinking your Kool-aid (it's vegan)

[@eveastardust3747]

These are called confounding factors. If a study wants to be taken seriously/doesn't want to be harshly criticized by peers, it will control for these factors statistically or remove them.

[@starmanjesus5679]

willett is a legend, what a pleasure to have him here on zoe, thank you so much

[@Annhienmoingay3333]

Moral beauty…that sums up my experience with jiu jitsu.. it changes lives. So much support, respect and giving back.

[@VTVT1306]

Inserting Jiu jitsu anywhere, anytime , anyplace 😂. Are you Joe Rogan?

[@glenjarvis4588]

One of my favourite zoe podcasts,very straightforward and inciteful.

[@alessia_traversa]

This interview was quite disappointing. It was based on singling out specific food instead of looking at nutrition as a whole. It’s said that white rice is unhealthy.. so I wonder why the Chinese and the Japanese are or maybe were until recently the healthiest people in the world? White pasta is unhealthy, so why are the Italians one of the populations with the highest life expectancy? We should stop looking at specific food. Honestly, who would eat boiled pasta/rice on its own, which would make it an unhealthy meal? If we have white pasta with salmon and tomato sauce, or pasta with beans, we will definitely have a decent heathy meal. If you eat white rice with a bunch of veggies and beans, that meal definitely becomes a healthy one.. Quantities, frequency and food combinations are much more important than just stating which food is unhealthy. The problem is not having white pasta, rice or potatoes a few times a week, the problem is what people eat the rest of the day/week. We need to remember that Balance is the key word.

[@jgreen9361]

The Italians eat both fresh and dried pasta. But, they don’t eat pasta ready meals, they don’t eat pasta as a main course with just a sauce and they don’t cook dried pasta that has sat in a food cupboard for 12 months or more.

[@alessia_traversa]

@@jgreen9361Hi! I agree with most of what you said, but being Italian I have to say that for lunch pasta is the main dish for most people. We don’t eat huge portions, maybe 80-90 grams with a nice sauce and after that just a small piece of meat or what’s leftover from dinner or what we have in the fridge :)However, Italian pasta dishes, usually are not as big as the English or American main courses.

[@waffle_chair9269]

Actually they are a massive problem, because they are mostly genetically modified and have high toxic loads with glyphosate used to grow it, they are nothing like the traditional plants those traditional people ate. You are comparing apples to oranges, when we see the damage that glyphosate causes to the microbiome, which underpins most of our health. It’s also not just a case of what those traditional diets included, but also what they excluded, which is just as important, because high blood sugar, from overconsumption of foods that feed pathogenic microbiome, then change the way the body would deal with and process the rice and pastas, (think insulin resistance and leptin levels) even if they were heirloom and organic forms. And lastly you don’t address genetics and how what our ancestors ate, may impact the epigenetics of their descendants. Things like tomatoes are very recent foods that have entered the human diet, and Italian often don’t include the skin and seeds, which are high in lectins/phytic acid/anti nutrients, so that also points to the way foods are prepared, and the ratio of foods within the meals.

[@tinybarabo]

I agree with you. Also, for someone who is doing a lot of exercise (endurance training) I need to eat simple sugars, like white rice etc. Who can digest Whole Foods on a 5-6 hour bikeride? I find this video really disappointing…

[@AllMight4Real]

@@alessia_traversa Totally agree. Being Asian, it’s hard to believe I am mostly overweight to obese most of my life. After I learned about WFPB diet, I lose 15kg eating WHITE RICE, WHITE PASTA & mostly vegetables and fruits. And my blood work is in the range of desired / optimal range. I am not Vegan, I do eat unhealthy food during festive seasons or celebrations.

[@gsp0819kri]

Dr Willet's book Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy is an awesome read. From what I gathered, he advocates eating in moderation with a strong emphasis on limiting your saturated fats and sugar. By far, he is one of the smartest nutritionists I know who takes into account every aspect of one's life - like your financial ability, sustainability, your social life, and your mental and emotional well-being. If you're really sick with high cholesterol and diabetes, then of course, it makes sense to go a little drastic on the diet, but even a little change has an enormous impact on one's health. This guy is a treasure!

[@VFNVFNVFN]

What a fantastic interview and a wealth of knowledge shared. Thank you so much.

[@wayneseims4953]

No mention of Fast Food outlets that appear to be catering for more and more quick meals for people. Surely this is one of the reasons many are eating less healthier.

[@AbdelwasieKahsay]

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[@loriwinters9999]

I think red meat is healthy as long as the rest of the diet is healthy. But if one wants to reduce red meat, why go to plants when one could substitute more healthy animal foods such as eggs and high omega 3 fish? Much much easier to digest than nuts, for me. For various reasons my health recovery has been heavily animal based incl red meat, and non starchy and fermented veg, and a bit of fermented dairy. No fruit no processed food. Lots of saturated fat.

[@C2B1303]

eating red meat is inhumanely devastating for animals and the environment

[@chuckleezodiac24]

@@C2B1303 preach! only 8 billion humans left to convert!

[@Alex-ml3zx]

I agree. All these studies are so flawed. If you look at who eats the most red meat it’s likely people that primarily go through fast food and get burgers, so they are probably also consuming sodas, fried foods, white bread, tons of high fructose corn syrup, lots of salt…etc - I doubt these studies look only at people eating meat and fruit and veggies with active lifestyles. Please prove me wrong.

[@HealingLifeKwikly]

"But if one wants to reduce red meat, why go to plants when one could substitute more healthy animal foods such as eggs and high omega 3 fish?" Maybe because research shows that plant fat and plant protein are healthier? Maybe because fish have high levels of contaminants, and more broadly, toxic chemicals naturally accumulate in the fat of animals--do people who eat meat have much higher levels of those chemicals in their bodies than do people who don't eat meat. Maybe because plants foods have ~8X the level of antioxidants that animal foods do. Maybe because all the best cancer-fighting foods are veggies? Maybe because calorie for calorie, spinach is more nutrient dense than beef liver and kale is more nutrient dense than a steak. Maybe because high egg consumption in the teen years is linked to higher rates of aggressive prostate cancer later in life. Maybe because research shows that a plant based diet is FAR better for the planet. Maybe because the oceans are already overfished and in some places, on the brink of collapse. Maybe because of less suffering of sentient animals? I guess those would be some reasons to swing more to the plant-based side of things.

[@mikafoxx2717]

​@Alex-ml3zx The China study followed traditional Mongols that are active and get most of their food from animals and horse milk, but they had significantly worse outcomes than the rural farmers eating mostly produce and grains from their farm.. they did blood tests and took meals for chemical analysis. Please read some studies and don't assume.

[@PlantBasedPrimary]

Excellent interview! Walter Willet is the master!

[@paddydiddles4415]

It is spot on clarity to demonise the carbs - because they are the problem! Let’s not fail to see the wood for the trees

[@pantameowmeow.s.1149]

The white rice thing - you are not always eating white rice alone, same with potatoes. That, to my understanding, slows down the digestion of the mixed meal. I stopped eating whole grain rice due to the reports of high arsenic levels in it (my favorite was from Italy - high arsenic soil). I eats tons of potatoes and so good as no rice. I am fitter than most teenagers, over 60 years of age.. Are you saying even if you are slim, a pear shaped female in fat distribution that these foods are still bad for me? I also have read the glycemic index is an academic thing that does not really translate into real life.

[@gabriellakadar]

Nothing is the matter with potatoes just don't fry them. Fast food restaurant type potatoes. The introduction of potatoes in Europe was a huge boon to the health of the populations. Potatoes are an inexpensive excellent source of potassium. Potassium is good for healthy blood pressure.

[@skilla1010]

I don't buy into the potatoes are bad thing. If you look at the UK levels of obesity and diabetes in the 1930's, 40s and 50s it was much lower whilst the consumption of potatoes was much higher. The difference was food was prepared from scratch. I think the added chemicals are far more important in this equation. Also I have taken my blood sugar after eating a white potato as part of the meal and it does not spike!

[@Alex-ml3zx]

Yep. People love to talk about blue Zones for example without having any clue about them. For example I grew up in Nicoya, Costa Rica where we eat white rice and black beans for every meal. And if you can afford it you would also have eggs/cheese/plantain for breakfast and for lunch and dinner a piece of meat, cheese and some veggie on the side.

[@anitahernandez1207]

I was watching a video from Dr. Jin Sung and there is a possible history to how white rice began to be viewed as better. It was only initially available to the wealthy, so that perspective gave it a higher nutritional value until many started getting BeriBeri from a lack of Vitamin B1, from stripping the grain. So, synthetic Vitamin B1 became the norm. Seems like the image of white rice being healthier continued for social/cultural reasons. Maybe that is why some older generations see food the way they do. 🌾🍚

[@BarbaraAnneBrown]

and yet white rice consumption causes BeriBeri.

[@dogwyllie793]

That’s interesting. Sugar was much the same in that it was the wealthy who had it first before it was mass produced. Have you ever seen what they think Elizabeth 1s teeth were like?😂

[@gabriellakadar]

Brown rice goes rancid quickly. That's why rice was milled so it would keep. If someone is living on white rice then sure, they'll get sick. In traditional rice growing areas, brown rice was only eaten for a short period of time after harvest. I don't think people realize that the oil in the rice bran is very unstable.

[@myoung48281]

No it doesn't, lack of thiamin does. Lack of B1 is associated with very poor populations with limited diets and alcoholics.

[@laviniafaulkner3202]

All my gratidude for this really great master class

[@johncreet1254]

Really interesting podcast. Although I was already aware of much of this, many of the key points have been at the back of my mind - and therefore largely ignored - when choosing food products, at least up to now. Hopefully that won't be the case from now on! One thing that could have been explained better is why potatoes are bad. I understand the points about refined carbs but potatoes are not refined and it therefore seemed a little odd to lump them in with other refined carbs such as white bread and rice. Perhaps they are quickly converted to sugar in the body in the same way as refined carbs but that could have been emphasised.

[@calluna5030]

And does keeping the potato skin on make a difference? More fibre and more minerals?

[@jgreen9361]

No whole food is bad. Potatoes vary hugely, there are waxy potatoes that are high in fibre, there are starchy types, slow grown types like pink fir apple, French gourmet varieties like ratte, purple varieties like Violeta. There is a huge difference between slow grown potatoes from your own allotment served steamed with a drizzle of olive oil and some chopped French parsley and precooked oven chips.

[@katherinephillips7314]

@@jgreen9361 you don't even have to put anything on them for them to be tasty. Just bake in the oven or microwave and then leave to stand for an hour or two - delicious

[@jgreen9361]

@@katherinephillips7314 I know, I agree, just baked in the microwave they can be super if they are a good variety. But I like to mix things up too. I do potatoes lots of ways. Steamed new potatoes with finely chopped spring onion, squeeze of lemon and a little black pepper. Serve with mixed salad leaves, azoychka tomatoes in the middle of summer, with a few crushed pistachios on top, falafel with a grilled red pepper, now that’s close to food heaven.

[@pastryshack551]

Dear sir, i grew up and never had a glass of milk to drink, when for the first time in north america trying a glass of milk was a slimy mixture to me. At 78 no deterionation in my bones at all even fell of a ladder at 77 no problems at all

[@nienke09090]

I missed the links to the underlying research in this podcast. It felt too much as a professor's personal opinion, which ofcourse is shaped by the research he did. But I felt it was still a bit biased in some areas, especially without the links to the research.

[@FrankProcopio]

In Western diets, flour consumption is substantial. A potential improvement could involve transitioning to whole grain flour or finding methods to lower the glycemic index of flour-perhaps by avoiding excessive milling. Throughout our history, manual stone grinding would likely have produced coarser flour. As for potatoes, opting for smaller varieties with a lower glycemic index could be beneficial. The Carisma Potato, for instance, is known to have a relatively low glycemic index.

[@nimblegoat]

also try eat skin of spuds

[@eliteboxfitness]

Yeah also try and eat the veg first before every meal when possible

[@861USMC]

No, eat the protein and fat. Then veggies, if starchy.

[@stuartperry8141]

I thought there is a problem with plant seed oils. Like soybeans, corn, etc.

[@BigSlimyBlob]

Polyunsaturated oils are chemically highly unstable. So unstable that they become fully rancid before they're even bottled. They would taste too awful to consume, so the producers superheat the oils to burn out the rancid taste, creating a bunch of harmful chemicals in the process. Most vegetable oils are basically cancer juice.

[@juliebrown8375]

Many pop nutritionists claim various problems are caused by "seed oils", but there isn’t any data to support those claims.

[@King64]

Greetings feom Denmark,just love ZOE ❤️❤️

[@lindap6245]

One serving of meat a week? Jonathan was right to continue to ask his guest to refine his answer about meat. Too bad he didn't ask to have the name of the study or studies that support this claim. I will continue to eat good quality meat daily, especially beef.

[@BarbaraAnneBrown]

me too.

[@annettestephens5337]

I’ve increased my red meat intake and feel healthier than ever. I understand that red meat is very high in nutrients. One day I think they will have to admit it.

[@spiral-m]

@@annettestephens5337 No the trend as the other way around, people used to be told to eat their meat because the meat industry and traditions sold stories. That continues to this day with pseudoscience and industry funded studies the distort the data. Now finally people can see through the BS. If it works for you, OK but that is an anecdote which can't be compared with population studies.

[@BigSlimyBlob]

Same. There is no scientific indication that red meat is detrimental. Even if there were, better die in five years than go back to being sick and miserable all the time.

[@eugeniodacosta2290]

From what I’ve heard, meat may be healthy in the short term, but not for long term health and longevity.

[@bayesianXYZ]

The polyunsaturated vs saturated fat debate seems to be obfuscated: years ago margarines were used due to their higher proportion of polyunsaturated fats and butter was deemed more harmful due to the higher proportion of saturated fats. A few years back, many reports were stating that this was backwards, that saturated fats are better than the unsaturated fats, specifically pointing to evidence from Mediterranean diets. Here, the good doctor seems to support the polyunsaturated position, something that we thought was erroneous. What are we missing?

[@sharinaross1865]

Is this rhetoric?

[@Cam-vj1io]

Very good point

[@tonycollyweston6182]

You seem to be missing your brain. Saturated fat drives up LDL which in the end is the main cause of CVD and death. Tom Dayspring will give you all the up to date references on the matter.

[@chuckleezodiac24]

@@tonycollyweston6182 lol.

[@tonycollyweston6182]

@@chuckleezodiac24 not much of a reply?

[@orang1414]

What if you paired a high starch carb like white rice with other elements to a meal that have a lot of fibre like vegetables, along with a protein and fat source?

[@eveastardust3747]

There is no bad or good in nutrition, only better and worse. certainly if you pair your white rice with tons of vegetables, beans and whole fats (olives, nuts or avocado) it's better than if you ate it with a cheesesteak.

[@Test-eb9bj]

Depends on the type, quality, diversity and portion of veggies and protein (vegetable or animal) you combine it with. Besides, if you slather everything with ranch / mayo/ (oil) you will end up with too many calories overall and will get fat over time.

[@balancefound]

Brown rice contains an antinutrient known as phytic acid, or phytate, that makes it more difficult to digest ( 24 ). While phytic acid may offer some health benefits, it also reduces your body's ability to absorb iron and zinc from food. In rice, inorganic arsenic is found in the two outer layers of the grain (i.e., bran and germ), and the bran and germ are removed to refine the grain into white rice. Thus, a greater concentration of arsenic is found in brown rice than in white rice.

[@MS-sd1uz]

That's why fermenting food is a good idea but no one ain't got time for that anymore

[@balancefound]

@@MS-sd1uz The issue that I have with fermentation is histamine intolerance. .

[@carlyndolphin]

I’ve been eating organic grass fed beef 4 times per week for 25 years. My blood work is good.

[@kymfortescue6737]

Not sure how that is relevant to the science - based on data vs anecdotal unverified stories.

[@williamcave6890]

People with bowel cancer have normal bloods until the blood loss can not be replaced. "Good bloodwork" is a very narrow spectrum health marker.

[@chuckleezodiac24]

you are doomed. also vile & immoral. i am a Vegan. that makes me better than other people. and more smarter when it comes to health stuff.

[@margeretheath597]

This is one of the best most useful podcasts ZOE has offered. Well done.

[@charlesedwardknight]

No there are many good Zoe podcasts, but this is absolutely the worst. Sweeping categorical negative pronouncements demonising the staple foods of the majority of the planet, meeting no challenge or questioning at all.

[@jonstern7511]

Mediterranean diet would surely have had dairy too. Sometimes I wonder if people edit how they define things like Mediterranean diet to suit their message

[@snezanavl8580]

True fetta cheese and parmesan cheese

[@jonstern7511]

@@snezanavl8580 thank you!

[@chuckleezodiac24]

they eat plenty of goat milk, goat cheese and goat yogurt.

[@jonstern7511]

@@chuckleezodiac24 thanks. Confirms what I thought!

[@TommysPianoCorner]

I have absolutely no idea where this view of ‘Mediterranean’ diets comes from. For the most part, they eat lots of meat - much of it cured as well as fresh. They love to go hunting too. They eat large amounts of cheese and won’t go anywhere near reduced fat ! Having lived in some parts of the Mediterranean and visited many others, meat is plentiful and included with every meal. Don’t even get me started on how much wine they drink (you can guess this just by how many acres are consecrated to grape production). Yet, still, people trot out how it is mainly plant based! I assume they are including the wine to make up the percentages as this is plant based! Total nonsense in short!

[@spiral-m]

Can you back up your claims with Studies? Mediterranean diet has been known for generations to be low on average in meat and high in fruits and vegetables. Also pretty high carb, whole carbs. It's not like everyone's going hunting and that's all they anyways!

[@TommysPianoCorner]

@@spiral-m you are perfectly entitled to believe what you wish. I lived there. I ate that diet. My experience was that it is far from plant based. I agree they eat lots of fruit and veg - but as an accompaniment to meat not as the central aspect of any meal. Even within the Mediterranean, there are massive disparities. North Africa for example eats much less veg than southern France

[@BigSlimyBlob]

​@@spiral-m There is no Mediterranean Diet. Historically, some researchers got a liking of the Mediterranean area and sought to figure out why they were healthy, but they found that they had very little in common, and many of them did eat a whole lot of meat, which went against the beliefs of the day. In the end they pretty much made up a diet that matched the conventions of the time and called it the Mediterranean Diet. The olive oil component is because olive oil companies funded "conferences": basically important people and journalists were invited to stay at luxury hotels in Italy, where they were provided with banquets. It was nothing but bribes, of course, but after experiencing those luxury vacations in Italy, few people were willing to give them up, and the nonexistent Mediterranean Diet was heavily promoted for quite a long time. It's still a thing today, even though it has zero basis in reality.

[@chuckleezodiac24]

the Mediterranean people also get more sunlight and have better sex lives.

[@mikafoxx2717]

​@@TommysPianoCornerThe Mediterranean diet was made up of diet fundamentals of rural communities in the 1960's, so unless you were there and then, sure, it won't be the same.

[@16Elless]

Aren’t the terms “good & bad cholesterol” outdated? In my understanding there’s just cholesterol & it’s pretty vital. I’m mid 60’s (on no meds) & don’t eat a lot of red meat but I’m planning to start eating more, as long as it’s grass fed & I drink full fat milk every day. No low fat anything these days. I eat nuts & seeds but have reduced carbs massively, no cereals, pasta etc & no seed oils. Luckily I’ve never liked Coca Cola, Pepsi etc & stopped drinking Tropicana orange etc a long time ago. I do time restricted eating & have lost 20lbs over the last couple of years so no longer overweight & maintaining my weight. It’s so confusing what to eat but I think you have to find what works for you. I’d like someone on here who advocates meat & who isn’t a big fruit & veg pusher but maybe that isn’t very PC these days!

[@annettestephens5337]

This channel is hugely fruit and vegetable biased. I have personally experienced great benefit by including more unprocessed red meat and eggs in my diet. I think so many people have eaten lots of carbs because they were told to reduce their fat intake.

[@16Elless]

@@annettestephens5337 totally agree

[@spiral-m]

@@annettestephens5337 Are you claiming that nutritional science is hugely biased? What exactly do you know that they don't? How do you know that your opinion isn't the thing that is biased?

[@BigSlimyBlob]

​@@spiral-m You must be new to the world of nutrition. The vast majority of studies are epidemiological, often based on food frequency questionnaires, and designed to make certain links appear more likely than they are. They ask people very silly questions, people misremember or lie, researchers further mutilate the data to account for confounding factors, and then you get some kind of horrible static noise that doesn't mean anything (and couldn't prove causation even if it did). If the noise is deemed to promote the message that whoever paid for the study wanted to promote, then it's published. Otherwise it's discarded and they keep making more noise. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics was founded by a religious cult who based their fundamentals on the visions of a madwoman who thought angels gave her dietary advice, and who are nowadays control licenses of nutrition "experts" and are heavily invested in the grain and pharmaceutical industries. Ancel Keys promoted nutritional guidelines based on a hypothesis that proved to be extremely wrong, but that was pushed by various forces among businesses and organizations. The sugar industry bought the head of the Food and Nutrition Service of the USA. All the nutrition organizations are staffed by Adventists, heads of food and agriculture businesses, and vegans. Even the clown in this video recently put his name on a sham study on diabetes that was designed to put the blame on red meat for the harm that grains and sugar cause. There's virtually no "nutritional science". It's almost all propaganda.

[@annettestephens5337]

@@spiral-m I’m not claiming anything. My evidence is based on my own experience, but one thing I have learned through my nutritional journey of many years, is that truth is very often hidden for the sake of big finance.

[@evamurray4229]

I had a huge shock when I tested my blood sugar after a substantial sushi meal. The rice seriously affected me.

[@beardumaw24]

I went more vegetarian low fat in my mid 20s through the early 50s as i started losing weight and strength even supplementing i was feeling unhealthy even being athletic. So i looked at all new studies and i did a major diet switch. I added back in lots of high quality meats and eggs reduced some veggies keeping the ones i liked best. Now three years on this new diet im gaining my weight, muscle, strength and health back and feeling great again. My take, a vegetarian diet might be ok when your young but as you age its not optimal and you loose to much muscle and weight, body gets depleted in fats and cholesterols that create hormones and brain health. Make scence as all new studies show this.

[@mikafoxx2717]

What new studies? The meat industry's?

[@sylviemacle7974]

@@mikafoxx2717 - exactly ! I agree... I've been vegetarian 35 years, I'm now 59 and I pass all my health tests with flying colours even though I've switched to going (mostly) vegan 5 years ago. The suffering of animals involved and the environmental impact of eating meat (or fish) would make me ill... I want NO part of this on-going madness.... it's NOT all about us -- we share this planet with other creatures who deserve this planet more than we do ! (going by ALL the harm that we have caused so far).

[@bmniac4738]

@@sylviemacle7974 Do feel encouraged by a fairly active vegetarian with BP 110/70 and random sugar of70/80.

[@mlxlmewq7733]

Can you talk about alternatives to refined carbs?

[@banicata]

Non refined carbs?? Obviously

[@davidr1431]

Animal-based proteins and fats.

[@eleuron]

Zoe is my favorite channel NOT to read the comments on.

[@kst157]

Excellent and the world’s most respected professor in understanding food and the consequences - wise words and a varied discussion - huge thanks to you both. :)

[@scds1082]

by cooling or freezing cooked potatoes, sweet potatoes or rice, they can become resistant starch which means they don't increase the glycemic index and provide good prebiotics to the microbiome

[@BathtranslationsCoUk]

Will be eating brown bread again from now on. Used to eat this but family rebelled at the chewiness of it all and without realising I have been buying white sourdough bread for years now.

[@bobadams7654]

Not just brown, it might be died white flour, but wholegrain. Checkout einkorn sourdough.

[@Alex-ml3zx]

White rice is fine as long as you eat it with fiber like beans or lentils. Also make sure you exercise to burn off excess carbs.

[@isobel8788]

Another fantastic interview thank u 👏👏 pls have Proff Walter Willet back on for another interview pls 😊

[@tinybarabo]

Blue zone diets: white rice in Japan, pasta 🍝 n Italy. I don’t know how these diets are considered the healthiest, while now we hear not to eat those. I am confused. Also what to eat as an endurance athlete during a workout?

[@jorush7690]

Surely it's about the other things they have in their diets and that some of the blue zones may be liable to not be blue zones in the future. Also this notion of personalisation.

[@pete49327]

The majority of Americans' potato consumption is via fast food french fries, potato chips, and the company they keep. There's a big difference between french fires and potato chips, and a baked potato minus toppings of, butter, cheese, sour cream, salt, bacon bits.

[@carolinesykes3636]

This presentation was a bit too broad. As a result it came across as just ‘the professors opinion’. It wasn’t clear what studies he had done and what sample sizes were used.

[@chuckleezodiac24]

when you publish over 2,000 scientific papers, you think you know it all just because you're one of the World's Most Respected nutritional scientists.

[@kruidjes]

​@@chuckleezodiac24observational studys are not science. Corelation is not causation.

[@kruidjes]

Fructose blocks vit D absorption. Maybe skip the fruit! Particulary in winter. Replace it with eggyolk and red meat. Then you add vit D.

[@kruidjes]

Never saw whole grain pasta or pizza in the mediteranian zone back in the 60ties. And they eat lots of pork and organ meats.

[@stevelanghorn1407]

Really glad that Jonathan repeatedly (and politely) asked Walter about the Red Meat “issue”. Still controversial and still not clearly resolved.

[@chuckleezodiac24]

it's only controversial and unresolved for those ruled by dogmatic fanaticism.

[@stevelanghorn1407]

I try to keep an open mind & learn what I can from both “sides”. I’m not going to adopt a dogmatic opinion, one way or the other, especially knowing that I’m not knowledeable enough to justify one.@@chuckleezodiac24

[@balancefound]

There is no mention of the impact from digestive diseases, celiac intolerance, fiber intolerance, food intolerances and night shade vegetables. Anti nutrients such as phytic acid, lectins, oxalates, sugar/sugar alcohols. One diet DOES NOT suit the entire population. Processed foods are terrible for everyone, exposure to glyphosphate pesticides in fruits, vegetables and crops such as whole grains fed also to livestock, the chemical additives, artificial colors, sweeteners and flavor enhancers.

[@vi3472]

Great overview of what we should be eating. I wish Dr Willett would have discussed the benefits of a 100% whole food plant based (vegan) in terms of optimal health. I also wish he would have explained why potatoes are grouped with white bread and pasta. He didn’t mention that sweet potatoes are a great food for us to eat. After listening to Dr John Mcdougall all these years tout the benefits of a starch based diet, particularly with potatoes included, I don’t understand Dr Willett’s objection to them. Many important points were made during this interview that people need to be aware of, such as children’s diets impact their future health and the government’s recommendations are influenced and biased due to Big Food lobbying, etc. Thank you!

[@phronsiekeys]

I have a few questions. Are pure juices as bad as juice drinks that are partial juice, water & added sugar? Is lean pork (not processed pork like bacon or sausage) considered as bad as beef? I know eating an orange is better than drinking freshly squeezed OJ (fiber, mainly, makes the difference) but is a lovely glass of home-squeezed OJ as a weekly treat all that bad?

[@pheart2381]

What makes you think any food is "bad"?

[@Visitkarte]

Yes, “pure juice” is just as bad for you. Ever seen how many oranges it takes to make a glass of orange juice? Try eating that many oranges as quickly as you can drink all that juice! The sugar in the orange is basically all in the juice and the fiber is thrown away. You take a whole food and you produce high sugar drink with barely any nutrients in it.

[@Visitkarte]

Yes, “pure juice” is just as bad for you. Ever seen how many oranges it takes to make a glass of orange juice? Try eating that many oranges as quickly as you can drink all that juice! The sugar in the orange is basically all in the juice and the fiber is thrown away. You take a whole food and you produce high sugar drink with barely any nutrients in it.

[@cycleoflife7331]

Juices are all pre bad compared to eating it whole as it releases sugars fast elevating your glycemic index. Look at a GI charts.

[@fredbloggs5902]

Most juices remove all the fibre. If you eat the fruit instead, you get the fibre, plus the process of eating it increases satiety.

[@anitahernandez1207]

What about bovine colostrum for helping with antibodies, year round allergies, microbiome repair? Processed baby formula?

[@LightZone9]

When dietary recommendations are made based on questionable "existential threats", your next meal may consist of eating bugs. No thanks. Waiter, I'll have the ribeye medium rare. Hold the sides.

[@seattlegrrlie]

We talk a lot about food separately from exercise. Professional cyclists, footballers, Olympic level athletes aren't getting type 2 diabetes. Why? Because they exercise away the carbs they eat. Americans eat those carbs and sit in front of a computer or in a car. We have a real epidemic of muscle mass that will impact whether red meat or white rice effects us negatively

[@lalitavajra6078]

A really interesting plain speaking talk and revelations from Prof. Walter Willett, thank you.

[@Thaythichgiachanh262]

Thanks for all your great advice. I really enjoy watching your videos, they provide a lot of knowledge and are very helpful on a daily basis in choosing food when shopping, etc. Thank you ❤✨

[@michellemildwater1021]

I dont drink any sweet beverages of any kind. Never eat take away of processed food. So why put a picture of a home made spaghetti bad as this can feed a familly who are poor. I am 73 and need to eat some potatoes are we not throwing the baby out with the bathwater What about the poor what the hell are THEY GOING TO EAT????

[@kymfortescue6737]

It's an issue for sure. And he noted that there is already a big (and growing) disparity between the wealthier, more educated and the poor and less educated when it comes to responding to recent nutrition science guidance (and consequential health outcomes). Existing food subsidies definitely need to be revisited to make whole foods more accessible.

[@HawkesChris]

Why is unprocessed healthy food allowed to be more expensive than industrial processed foods? Supermarkets and the control food companies have over their pricing has to be looked at.

[@charlespaynter8987]

I think we need to move on & be wary of the generalisations of dividing food into 'good' or 'bad' and not assume that because something is categorised as 'bad' or 'good' it is necessarily so. A point that is not discussed much is how food is grown. If vegetables and fruit are treated with pesticides, particularly powerful fungicides, are these as 'good' for us as we think they are? If the farmed environment is depleted of biodiversity because of modern production techniques, what happens to the nutritional content of the food grown there? Likewise the assertion that all red meat is 'bad' and emits lots of CO2 is not true and we may be missing out on a range of animal based foods that would help give us a balanced healthy diet, especially in parts of the world where plentiful & varied fresh vegetables and fruit is not available year round. It needs also to be remembered that red meat is a co-product of dairy. You cant have dairy without red meat as well. Cattle reared on regenerative or organic farms that utilise mob grazing techniques fed entirely on grass and forage year round produce a very different food nutrition and CO2 profile. Not only that but these less intensive methods also boost biodiversity and on mixed farms help reduce reliance on artificial inputs. The answer as always is 'it depends' & lies in the detail of the holisitic context of us, the supply chain and farmers. Knowledge is key. Read labels and find out how food is produced. Get closer to your local farmers

[@HealingLifeKwikly]

"farms that utilise mob grazing techniques fed entirely on grass and forage year round produce a very different food nutrition and CO2 profile." Unfortunately, I'm not aware that research has shown any health benefits of grass-finished beef (I heard carnivore KZbin influencers admit this), and research shows that grass-finished cattle are even worse for the environment than are grain-finished cattle. The grow slower and produce less meat, so even more wilderness has to be degraded and more biodiversity lost.

[@charlespaynter8987]

@@HealingLifeKwikly There’s new evidence emerging from individual farms in UK who are independently measuring and recording their CO2 footprint using methods such Cool Farm Tool. I’ve had it done on some of my arable fields. You record fertiliser, machinery fuel, field operations, crop type etc - basically everything and the tool works your CO2 use/sequestration. The biggest source of carbon emissions on modern farms is carbon synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. If you aren’t using it, it is entirely feasible to become carbon neutral. I’ve seen figures that clearly show that less intensive mob grazing techniques(key point is the length of resting phase between grazing events) emit far less carbon than conventional more intensive systems reliant on N fertiliser. The reason there is little documented evidence is that large agri-businesses that supply farmers aren’t interested in putting money into research into this. Their business model relies on the conventional farm industry status quo

[@mikafoxx2717]

Seems you're listening to the marketing too much.

[@davestambaugh7282]

I was eating a wide variety of vegetables until I discovered that I had mild high potassium. Most of what I have read about this is that a low potassium diet is recommended and I realized that I was walking through a mine field. No doctor has ever told me that a low potassium diet was a good idea however I saw that repeatedly spiking my potassium levels was a bad idea.

[@richmondshaw1947]

Apart from the inherent dangers, potholes and negligent drivers, cycling 50 or more miles a week in your seventies and onwards appears to have significant health benefits, improved thymus activity and consequent improved immune system. Along with a healthy diet, as suggested, although at coffee stops there is a tendency to consume cake etc which I suspect is largely burnt off on a 25 mile return ride, this, I think, is one recipe for a healthy and happy retirement. Amongst our group we have some over 80 and most over 65 and most of us are generally well.

[@gopowergogo]

I don’t even know what to eat anymore. I need more than fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and legumes. Now I have to get rid of meat and rice.

[@lindalaw5466]

I think they want to add in the bugs…..

[@gopowergogo]

@@lindalaw5466I’m sure once they do that, there will be studies saying how eating bugs is bad for you

[@wizardaka]

Don't worry, I think they radically overemphasise the importance of diet on this channel, as you might expect in fairness to them.

[@Visitkarte]

No one told you to get rid of the meat and you can eat rice and veggies - just don’t overdo the starchy foods.

[@tkspiece2310]

Noone said you had to get rid of meat, which is a great protein and rice, which is a grain if your body can tolerate both of them. If you have specific issues that get worse when you eat animal fats, proteins and grains, then adjust accordingly. It really is a simple as that. The people on this channel don't know everyone's unique circumstances, so they can't give everyone unique answers. People do need to try to do some of the work themselves.

[@kencarey3477]

What about the Asian population that eat a lot of white rice

[@mooskamoo]

South and East Asian populations that consume large amounts of white rice do see significantly higher levels of diabetes type 2, although this is mainly in urban areas with sedentary lifestyles. Rural populations who are far more active have much lower levels of type 2 diabetes, although there is also believed to be a small genetic component involved. South and East Asian communities in the west also have higher levels of type 2 diabetes than other ethnic groups but again this is believed to be mainly down to a lack of exercise and activity (and a small genetic predisposition) rather than their white rice consumption (although this is also a minor contributing factor).

[@kencarey3477]

@@mooskamoo Walter Kempner cured type 2 Diabetes with a diet of only white rice and fruit juice?

[@kencarey3477]

@mattclark6854 what about Walter Kempner s rice and fruit juice diet

[@mooskamoo]

@@kencarey3477 what about it? What’s the question?

[@BarbaraAnneBrown]

they get a lot of diabetes

[@banicata]

How can the professor explain that boiled potatoes have the highest satiety index??? Potatoes prepared in a healthy way are not unhealthy!!

[@BigSlimyBlob]

Do they? Boiled potatoes are extremely aggressive carbs, it's pretty much sugar. In the short term, they'd relieve your carbs withdrawal symptoms, but you'd have a pretty bad crash and become ravenously hungry again just a few hours later. That's not satiating. I started eating real high-satiety foods when I stopped eating carbs, and I went from eating from morning to evening to eating just once a day.

[@banicata]

@@BigSlimyBlob Google satiety index. Boiled potatoes are off the chart. French fries are very low on the other hand. Also, Google resistant starch. It forms if you refrigerate potatoes or rice after cooking. Resistant starch is very filing and it feeds your gut bacteria

[@BigSlimyBlob]

@@banicata I don't believe the numbers. Potatoes will remove withdrawal and make you feel super stuffed, but they will not satiate you. That's a very important difference. So many people try to make themselves feel full, but that's a ridiculously bad strategy. You want to be satiated, even if you're nowhere near full. Carbs are never going to be the best at satiation, even the least addictive ones among them. Nutrient-dense animal proteins and fats work best, and they do not spike insulin much. I eat a single meal a day. It doesn't come anywhere close to making me feel full (it's maybe a third of my capacity). But it does make me feel fully satiated. So it's effortless to go 20-26 hours between meals.

[@annbenson9734]

Yes Michael Mosley reported thar recently. He is a famous UK doctor specialising in diet and health who makes TV programmes.

[@LongDefiant]

Honestly. I have been focusing on resistance starch in my diet and I wanted a better perspective. The video just kept saying "potatoes bad" without giving any info. And the fact that the interviewer hasn't responded via comments shows that maybe he doesn't care that much about what he's saying.

[@christopherrattew8591]

I do get a good diet, but still have suffered with deficiencies of Vitamins A and D, and zinc, so some people need supplements or special diet items anyway.

[@sonjawells4265]

❤Excellent show! Thank you.

[@Mark_Lacey]

Regarding red meat and cholesterol: the AHA removed from the guidelines the previous recommendation on eating

[@spiral-m]

American Heart Association is a large non-profit organization based in Dallas, Texas. It's been in operation since 1924 and is focused on cardiovascular health. It's been alleged that the AHA has been taking payment from meat companies in exchange for its “heart healthy” product certifications The organization pointed out that, as recently as August 1, 2022, an official peer-reviewed journal published on behalf of AHA recognized that “higher meat intake [is] associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease [ASCVD].”

[@BigSlimyBlob]

@@spiral-m The AHA was a minuscule, insignificant organization until Proctor and Gamble gave it tons of money to make recommendations that would push consumers away from meat producers to their own plant-based products (like Crisco). Association means very little. Some people are health-conscious (they exercise, don't smoke, don't drink, don't eat processed food or sugar, see their doctor more often, etc) and some aren't. The health-conscious people will eat less meat because they think it's bad for them, and the not-so-health-conscious people will eat it along with their soda and alcohol and doughnuts and whatever else. Of course the people who eat meat will more often have CVD, but there's very little that says it's the meat specifically that's doing it. Additionally, CVD isn't everything, there are other causes of mortality and there are factors like dementia to take into account. The places that eat the most meat tend to have the highest life expectancy.

[@C2B1303]

@@BigSlimyBlob "The places that eat the most meat tend to have the highest life expectancy." Your source??? Japan, Scandinavia, France, Greece and Italy (Mediterranean) -a few big outliers?

[@BigSlimyBlob]

​@@C2B1303 Not at all, the areas of Japan, Greece and Italy that are the longest-lived (they call them "blue zones", though I'd be wary of the label since it's been trademarked and then bought by Adventists for 78 million dollars) consume more meat than average, having pork and fish in common. Especially in Okinawa, where pork is the most loved food; they were initially reported to eat loads of purple sweet potatoes, but that was only during the period right after their pigs had been lost during the war, and before they replenished their livestock. The idea that the "blue zones" is plant-based has been debunked by people who actually visited, and not in unusual circumstances (like Okinawa in the post-war, or Italy and Greece during lent at which time people don't eat meat). Turns out they love meat. The place with the highest meat consumption per capita on the planet (more than twice as much as the USA, with lots of other animal products on top) is Hong Kong. It's also the place with the highest life expectancy on the planet. Historically speaking it works the same too, there have been people consuming large amounts of animal products and they were perfectly healthy. The "diseases of the west" or "diseases of civilization" are recent, and they started getting much much worse as people started eating less meat and more plants.

[@andreamartin8358]

This was one of the most interesting videos I have heard in a while. Please have him back!

[@nicolaslade6733]

I'm perplexed by nutritionists' attitude to potatoes. Maybe eating this foodstuff is very much an individual thing. I eat potatoes a lot, mostly including the skins, and they keep me going for hours. If I eat them as part of my evening meal at 6.00 pm I don't need to eat again till around 10.00 am the next day. Come on guys, potatoes have sustained people for eons - think of the historical Irish. Otherwise, an interesting and informative talk. Thank you.

[@BigSlimyBlob]

Irish didn't eat potatoes until just 450 years ago. Evolutionarily speaking, that's basically nothing. Potatoes are remarkable in that they can grow in huge amounts in limited available land, and provide a huge amount of energy. But that says nothing about how healthy or unhealthy they are. In the end, potatoes are highly aggressive carbs. The skins in particular should not be eaten, because that's where potatoes concentrate their toxins (to keep insects and burrowing animals at bay).

[@garethmorgan3665]

Fellow potato lover here. I once read they are nnutritious and authorities came up with the 'Five a day' thing they wanted to include potatoes but were worried people would think chips counted !

[@gabriellakadar]

Agreed.

[@leilafigo2485]

I just think that he's trying to make the point that potatoes are almost like eating sugar or white rice. I used to be a huge potato lover. Since I developed problems with my pancreas, I started wearing a continuous glucose monitor and the dramatic and sharp increases in blood glucose due to potato. Eating are exactly the same as when I eat white rice or white bread or sugar. Of course, this doesn't really matter if you're in very good health and everyone is different as well.

[@helenmattless4065]

There are still ' people' telling us to eat plenty of carbs and that fruit is good for you.Insulin is surging through your body to keep your blood sugars correct, insulin over time will give plenty of health problems, well only if you abuse it, rubbish foods, sugar and high carbs will help you abuse it.Seems people who eat plenty of good quality meats, selected veg, nuts and eggs don't seem to abuse the blood sugar/insulin levels.

[@xnoreq]

Eh... Glucose is the body's most preferred energy source. It fuels every cell. It is so important that our bodies evolved mechanisms to convert fats into glucose, but this increases oxidative stress (and the main reason why keto increases inflammation and insulin resistance). Insulin peaks are vital for life as this will transport nutrients and glucose (energy) into our cells. The main problem is trivial and this has been known for decades: overeating and physical inactivity. Ultra-processed "foods" (more correctly: edible products) are specifically designed to stimulate (over)consumption. These products are ultra-palatable, cheap and extremely convenient but also have high caloric density and lack nutrients. If a dish tastes bad, is expensive and hard to cook then you immediately get negative feedback. But if you eat these ultra-processed products then it can take years or even decades for damage to accumulate to a level where it causes serious health issues. That's why most American's diet consists mostly of this crap. Back to carbs: Carbs are good, carbs are live. But you are right, the more refined the carbs are, the more you need to preload with fiber and protein to curb excessive rises in blood sugar. For the same reason it is not a good idea to eat a ton of carbs with every meal and eating all the time (which btw is another negative side-effect of ultra-processed edible products). Meat can really spike your insulin. Veggies are good because of the nutrients and fiber that you cannot find in meat. Care must be taken with nuts as some of them are almost pure fat (tons of calories!). Eggs are not healthy. Plenty of studies have shown this for decades, except for the ones that were paid for by the egg industry.

[@banicata]

Of course that fruit is good for you

[@peternumber19]

Prostate cancer is hormone responsive and most liquid goes through it. Any studies on that.

[@Arugula100]

Aren't we creating Trans fat every time with bake or broil foods that has oil or fat? In the medical texts of traditional ancient cultures of East Asia (China, Korea, Japan), baking is believed to be inflammatory. Steaming is considered the best. By steaming, we mean the food does not touch water (which is American version of steaming). Instead, the good is cooked by the steam of the water, a slower process. All Chinese, Japanese and Korean herbal medicine is founded on low heat preparation. I cane across studies done in Sweden that support the view that high-heat cooking (grilling, BBQ, broiling, baking, frying) is bad abd steaming retained the most nutrients. I hope you can have a podcast on cooking methods.

[@javiTests]

I'm not sure what to think now then, regarding dairy. In other podcasts Prof. Tim has said that we shouldn't worry about the fat in yogurt, or cheese is fine (of course, don't eat 1 kg per day), but now Prof. Walter Willett said that dairy has quite a bit of saturated fat and that's not good... 😅

[@rowandowland1391]

There's so much confusion on some of these topics amongst the scientists making it very hard for us laypeople. Red meat is good, red meat is not good, 'bad cholesterol' vs 'there's no such thing as 'bad cholesterol', cheese is good vs cheese is not good... etc etc. Is there any wonder some people just give up

[@mikafoxx2717]

Yeah, the meat industry just like the cigarette industry plays this game of doubt. They don't need even to try to prove it's good, just raise enough doubt that people give up. Nina Teicholz that made up a whole lot of the low carb talking points is literally a beef industry marketer that's getting a 150k salary. It's criminal to have so much misinformation. Sure it might be healthier short term if you cut out all the junk food and lose 100lbs, but being thin isn't enough to save you from heart disease.

I'm very confused about what I hear about dairy in this podcast from Prof. Willett, and what I heard about dairy and cholesterol from Dr. Sarah Berry. While Dr. Berry says dietary cholesterol does not raise blood cholesterol, Prof. Willett says the opposite here. Have I misunderstood? Also, the overall message about dairy from the Zoe team vs from Profl. Willett is very different, to my understanding. Could anyone let me know where do the differences come from?

[@tenzindolkar4834]

Could you please clarify whether you were referring to the bran and germ when you mentioned that the majority of the fiber and nutrients are found in the “husk” of rice, rather than the inedible outer husk itself? Thank you

[@DeborahBrooks]

The Mediterranean diet- simple and beneficial for all health markers 😊

[@davidr1431]

Not as beneficial as keto if you look at Chris gardner’s earlier research.

[@mikafoxx2717]

​@@davidr1431in what world is higher ApoB better for you? Losing weight in any way will improve health initially, even if it's on Twinkies and McDonald's. It's more about how much and what you're NOT putting in your body.

[@davidr1431]

@@mikafoxx2717 I’m just referring to Gardner’s own work. For people for whom the Mediterranean diet doesn’t appeal or work, keto might be an alternative worth trying.

[@mikafoxx2717]

@@davidr1431 I would indeed ask one to track caloric intake and go easy on the olive oil if they're not seeing weight loss. For most people weight gain or stall is a simple thing or habit that changes the whole balance.

[@Visitkarte]

1. The problem of the trans fats isn’t solved. They “solved” the problem by declaring less than the limit amount of transfats per serving while declaring ridiculously small serving sizes. So they can say there’s no transfats. 2. The fruit juices don’t have simply a lot of added sugar- even the “natural” sugar in them is horribly wrong because they are devoid of the structure to bite and the fibre. 3. Latest research suggests that even whole grain rice isn’t really better for you than white rice.

[@mooskamoo]

Fair points. Concerning rice, whole grain rice has a small amount of additional nutrition over white rice but it is pretty minor and their glycemic index is not as different as most people would believe, so you are correct.

[@fredbloggs5902]

The solution to trans fats is simple… …don’t eat them.

[@mbsjanetelizabeth]

What about fish? What about oily fish for vitamin D and reduced dementia?

[@bigg5582]

Get Doctor McDougall on to talk about his starch solution...

[@waffle_chair9269]

The issues of many of the common health concerns that have a high mortality, link to metabolic issues, which often include insulin resistance , and have much to do with microbiome as well. With many carbs being gmo, and treated with glyphosate , these foods become even more dangerous, given many diets also include other unhealthy foods, effecting the whole body, and preventing it from dealing efficiently with the refined carbs. Addressing only one issue will only get in so far, where as treating the body as a whole by rebuilding it from the bottom up, will allow the body to reach homeostasis and rebalance itself. Metabolic issues , insulin resistance , and microbiome being rest are key, as are eating non toxic foods that aren’t filled with things like glyphosate , hormones and antibiotics in meats etc. heirloom and organic will clean up a lot too.

[@Jean-hu3cp]

Always something to learn, even if you largely are doing the right thing! I wondered about soya - around 30 mins in. Could the problem for those who eat ' really high' amounts of soya be the chemicals used in production rather than the soya itself? Nowadays, plants are grown in poor soils with most depleted in minerals and so require chemicals added along with various herbicides and pesticides routinely used in non-organic production.

[@myoung48281]

I buy organic tofu.

[@BarryAnderson]

Yes, one of the fastest industries on record today is the CONSUMER ORGANIC FOOD MOVEMENT but with a catch. Organic farmers today must jump through a lot of Government red tape administration details just to get Government Certification a financial burden and time-consuming. The land must lay untouched for at least 2 years but we do not know how chemically treated this land was made before and for how many years as well. Our impacted desertification of lost topsoil is a major issue today . Then the competing Tax-paying subsudies are unfair economically to the organic family farm community. Some Banks will often not give loans to organic farm practices unless they sign a contract of using chemicals herbicides and GMO seed in some cases . Collusion and Corruption are right in the agricultural business sector these days. Then at the retail level, Organic Produce will have marked up prices and the volume of goods is very small so very little choice to the consumer in some of the Food Malls worldwide today. This is a major problem we all face today.

[@nickseccombe1357]

I thought cancer was caused by damage to the mitochondria, and that DNA damage was just an observed downstream effect?

[@Caladcholg]

20:32 "no one thinks that giving coca cola to their children is a good idea". Oh my sweet summer child, I'm guilty being myopic myself the more time spent in the nutrtion space, but in America this statement simply isn't true (man I wish it was, though! Drinks and flour: just two simple steps away from these could cover so, so much ground). Edit: I'll let the rest of the comment section have fun with the 'red meat causes diabetes, let's replace it' discussion XD. Oh, Walt.

[@paulm3805]

Why not bring on an academic who is in favour of carnivore, would make an interesting challenge

[@mikafoxx2717]

You'll never find a carnivore that has 2000 published papers. I'd be amazed if you could find any with more than one.

[@csmith5611]

@@mikafoxx2717 That shows your ignorance, there are plenty. Try Dr Zoe Harcombe PhD who disects all the published papers and is herself carnivore. ZOE is so biased to plants and treats excellent animal products as if they were poison. Talk about biased.....

[@marcomarcon5802]

@@csmith5611 PhD here. The carnivore fad is too recent to provide sufficient data to gauge its long-term effects. However, there are populations whose traditional diet is almost exclusively based on meat and fish; they are the native people living around the Arctic Circle. Their current life expectancy is 67, and the life expectancy of Northern Mediterranean populations is 85. As for Zoe Harcombe, she is just a nobody who peddles diet books and climate change denialism.

[@kathrynmashburn4465]

Sorry, but I cured my brother of type two diabetes with carnivore diet. Now he’s eating a more balanced. But the carnivore is what cured his type two diabetes!🎉

[@tonycollyweston6182]

That sounds great, and now your brother can eat a cake without his blood sugar zooming up?

[@MS-sd1uz]

​@@tonycollyweston6182that's not a good idea for anybody

[@nathanwent4575]

That's because he gave up crapy carbs. I've not seen ANY credible studies that would recommend the carnivore diet.

[@user-bh5er5me2p]

The weight loss (from the diet) is what actually cured him. Any effective diet would have done that.

[@seaglass3594]

@@tonycollyweston6182 A rise in blood sugar is normal after eating cake. Becoming insulin resistant from a lifetime of eating cake and ultra-processed foods IS a cause of diabetes.