SPEAKER_00 0:00

This episode is creating the top 10 most what I would say are overly glorified health foods that aren't actually that healthy.

SPEAKER_03 0:12

It's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Here we go.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

And I think uh one thing to know is that just because we're saying they're overrated does not mean that we don't necessarily enjoy these things.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Correct. And like, and understand that like just because we're saying it's overrated doesn't mean it's bad.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

We're not saying bad or good.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Yeah, we're not saying these these these options are unhealthy for you or harmful, harmful. It's the goal of this episode is to sharpen your understanding and radar to what is actually truth and what is gimmick science, social media glorification.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

So when you eat these things, you can feel more empowered of knowing how much nutritional value are you getting from it, or how much is it just this is a treat that I'm going to enjoy.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Exactly. And also knowing that some of these things on the list I fell victim to. And still do. And I okay. There I we're actually we're gonna so so we're gonna start from the worst and we'll go back to 10. Wait and watch till the 10th uh one of our list as the least of the most because number 10 don't give it away. Hurts my soul, but I agreed with Lara. Lara was like adamant of having this one on the list, and it hurts my soul a little bit, but I have to take my bias out of it and say, yes, I agree. It's okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

What a guy. What a guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Uh my soul will be hurting on the end of this episode. So watch till the end to find out where even I am willing to admit you're wrong. Admit not admit wrong. Oh, sorry. Wrong is a strong term. Admit that there's limitations.

unknown 1:58

Okay, great.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

You want to start us out with the first one, which I know you were very excited about.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

All right. Because obviously, uh AI helps with like creating like creating structure and all this kind of stuff. No, I know. No, and so uh AI helped this process out from a structural standpoint. Uh, but story time for this first episode, or for the for number one most overrated of the health foods, I read the list and obviously I went through it and kind of discerned it myself. But number one, I was it was the first on this list was the number one thing I think is so overrated as a health food. After I got it done, I went to Lara and Jana's office and I go, all right, guys, this is the episode we're doing, and I want you guys to say out loud what you guys think is the number one most overrated health food. Lair, Lara paused and Jana answered first, and Jana uh nailed it. Nailed it. I started dying laughing because it was my number one issue, too.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

I think you guys said it in unison even.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

We I think we did say it in unison. So, Lara. Yes, number one most overrated health food is You're talking about ASI bowls. Aseye bowls, Aseai bowls, however you say it. It's like it's a glorified dessert.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

There's nothing wrong with ASEI berries. This is but when people put them in these bowls that have how many grams of sugar?

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah, like these bowls and they fill them with peanut butter and or almond butter, bananas, granola, all this kind of stuff. They're just big old calorie freaking dessert bombs.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

Yeah, they can have they can have 50 to 90 grams of sugar easy. Easy.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

And so And like people are eating them for like their lunch.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

Yeah, and they the thing to me is that people when they're eating them for lunch, they feel like they're being really healthy.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Yeah, they think they're making a good choice.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

And I'm just like, you just ate a bunch of sugar and calories. Like I mean, I think if your goal was bulking, really good option.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

Or yeah. I mean, I've had an Aussie bowl and I enjoy them. I think they're very tasty, but I don't eat them as a solid meal that I feel great nutritional value from.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Exactly. I'm the same way. So that's number one. Number two, because Lara had to bring context to this, uh, which is even crazier that it has the the amount of people behind it. Uh, number two is celery juice. There's this health, this whole celery juice cleanse uh where it's claiming that it's doing all of these medical benefits.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

And it's just fascinatingly enough, it was apparently started. This trend was started single-handedly, pretty much, by some guy online that calls himself the medical medium.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

When Lara was looking into this, she's like, there are people out there that listen to a dude named Medical Medium who says he gets health advice from spirits.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

It is wacko to me. I just am shocked. And people don't believe they're doctors. Like, I just don't understand this world we live in sometimes. Um, but he claims that celery juice is like this undiscovered, super healthy product that heals your gut and fixes all these other problems. Um, but this this is there's nothing to this. There is literally, at least we have no clinical data to support that celery juice.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Celery is fine.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

Oh, celery's great. It has so much fiber. When you have celery juice, is there any fiber left?

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Well, yeah, and then no, and then and then you sit there and go, uh, oftentimes in these situations, uh people go on these like celery juice cleanses and then they feel really good after five or six.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Because they didn't eat anything and they're like putting junk in their bodies.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Exactly. It's so funny. I lost seven pounds on this celery juice cleanse, and I feel great because you didn't basically eat for seven days.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

I'm just I I've never tried celery juice, but it how can that that cannot be tasty? I mean, celery is fine.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

Drinking the juices.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Number three, this one, do you want to do it or me?

SPEAKER_03 6:05

Go for it.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

So, this one I used to fall gimmick to. I'll be the first one to say it back in my early weight loss phase. Um, alkaline water. This idea that drinking basic or alkaline water somehow, because there's this huge uh movement on the internet talking about how your disease only comes from an acidic state, and and cancer and all this stuff only can come from acid. And like if you eat plants and this and this, your body's alkaline and basic, and so you can't have diseases and all this stuff. Like, this is all over the internet. Uh and so people drink alkaline water thinking that it's alkalizing their body to like limit disease, and it's completely nonsense. Um, I think we've talked about previous episodes. Blood pH, pH in the body is so stable. Is one of the most regulated metabolic pathways in the body.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

Do you know what pH typically sits at?

SPEAKER_00 7:08

7.4 to 7.6.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

7.35 to 7.45. Okay. Yeah. But in the body is so good at regulating this.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

So good.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

So when I worked inpatient in the hospital, um, when people came in with either a metabolic acidosis or a alkalosis or, you know, respiratory alkalosis or respiratory uh acidosis, these people were sick, sick, sick, sick. So when your pH gets outside that range that the body keeps it in, you're not walking around doing your day-to-day. It's so bad. And I they're hard, it was hard to treat. I was I did not like that. Um, I did not like treating patients for that because it was scary.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Oh, I can believe it.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Uh-huh. So um there's in when you drink this alkaline water, it's not making your pH any more alkaline. Because your body just regulates it. Keeps it, your everything at homeostasis. It doesn't, it's not gonna change that.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

And you sit there and go, like, okay, the only thing I could see potential merit in, I don't know if it's any clinical day to back it up at all, did not look into it. But it's like, okay, if you have like a stomach acid problem, drinking basic water, like it's like peptobismol. Okay, fine. Pepto drinking some fine. Like we know pepto helps if you have stomach indigestion, if you have too much acid, blah, blah, blah. But in general, like what do you think happened?

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Okay, what do you think do you think the pH of your stomach is high or low?

SPEAKER_00 8:31

It's suit well, it's super acidic. It's very acidic.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

So, what do you think happens when you drink an alkaline water?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Your stomach's gonna probably produce more acid.

SPEAKER_03 8:40

It just neutralizes it. Poof. So it's not doing anything.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Oh, that's well, and yeah, that's always my favorite. It's like it's just neutralizing in the stomach.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

Yeah. So you're paid extra money for nothing.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

For marketing.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

For marketing.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Number four.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

All right. This is such a common one that people that come to see me talk about.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

This one, this one's gonna offend some people, I know.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

It might. Um, but this is gluten-free products for non-celiac or gluten-intolerant people.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

So I see, I mean, people come in to see me all the time and I ask them about their nutrition just in general. And sometimes it's not uncommon for people to just start telling me about how, well, they you know, don't eat too many carbs, and they try to eat gluten-free or something to that effect. And he's like, Well, why are we eating gluten-free? Like, do you have are you celiac or do you have problems, the symptoms if you eat gluten? And a lot of times they don't. They just feel like it is healthier to eat gluten-free.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

And then I I think it's a super funny one. One of my mom's friends, yeah, which I will not name, uh, she actually was going through that whole not celiac, but potential intolerance. She goes to her GI. GI actually tells her, uh, let's cut all the gluten out, see what happens. It actually was super beneficial to her. And then so now she was like, okay, I'm gluten intolerant. She starts hammering the gluten-free snacks. And she gains like 10 or 12 pounds. And she like, and then like four or six months later, she goes back to her uh her doctor and was like, I'm gaining all this weight. Like, what's wrong? And her doctor goes, gluten-free product does not mean calorie-free. And often gluten-free products are higher in calories because of the lack of gluten, they're increasing sugar, they're increasing refined starches, they're doing other things to remove the gluten. So actually, oftentimes your gluten-free uh products are higher in calories. And so you so like he he joked with her. He goes, gluten-free does not mean calorie-free.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

And I think there, I think there are people, I mean, there apparently she is an example that people think that, like, oh, I can lose weight if I switch to gluten-free. And that has nothing to do with weight loss.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Yeah, people say it's like because people because again, the the social media world has just demonized gluten to such a degree where, oh, you have a weight problem? It's probably because you're gluten intolerant.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

And it's like, no, if you cut gluten on your diet and you feel better, some symptoms improve, you're having less bloating, something like that. Great, don't eat gluten. But it that doesn't mean that gluten-free is the answer for every person because it's healthier.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

So, number five, I will also admit, did you fall for this? I fell for this hard. Because this went back to the whole thing, I went to my keto phase, all this kind of stuff. So, number five, coconut oil. I used to believe, and like kind of like the anti-seed oils, I went through a seed oil phase, like or anti-seed oil phase relatively early on in my weight loss. Um, and so this glorification of coconut oil as somehow a better saturated fat, it's not. It's just saturated fat.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

It's so high in saturated fat.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

It's just it's uh and so like I can't tell you how many times in my life I've bought in those big tubs of coconut oil. What did you do with them? I never used it. Or like I ate a minimal, minimal. Like, because I just never really did it. But occasionally I'd buy a big old tub of coconut oil and act like I was gonna use it, and I never used it.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

Now, if you're like making some recipe that has coconut oil in it and you enjoy it and you find it um enhances a certain dish, like great, use it, but don't use it because you think it's a better option.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Yeah, especially compared to seed oils. Yes. Because saturated fat is not as ideal.

SPEAKER_03 12:36

Drink that. We it's gonna raise your LDL cholesterol, which go listen to our other episodes.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

We've gone into it.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

We've talked about it.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

I know people don't want to hear it. All right, number six.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Number six, I love, and I would eat this every day, but I know that it's not that healthy. So it is um granola is essentially a like candy bar, broken down cookie. Yeah. I mean, it has has you typically it has a ton of oats in it. So I mean it has it has nutritional value to it. Oats are great. Um, you can put nuts and seeds and things in there. But if anyone has ever made granola, you know, to make it taste good and have the right texture, you add gobs of sugar and a lot of times fat to it. So it just becomes very, very calorically dense, which again, that doesn't always mean anything is bad about it, but there it's not healthy.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah, it's not like well, it's it's always like so many things out there. Granola is one of those quote unquote healthier foods from like a monounsaturated fat perspective and stuff like that. However, it's also very calorically dense.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

Very.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

And so many people get hooked on, they fixate on the healthier food options, not realizing that that healthier food is more calorically dense. And if the goal is weight loss, for a lot of people it is, it's not that good of an option. Like it really isn't.

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Like if you want to sprinkle a small amount on your uh and your granola, I mean, on your yogurt in the morning, and you're not worried about extra calories, like go for it. Like I do that here and there, but um, it's not a health food.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Which is sad. Number eight. I uh I will admit I never fell for this craze because every time I've had it, I just think it tastes like used like uh clothing in a in a bottle of water. Like I don't I don't think it's good. I don't think it's good at all.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

It's quite the analogy.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Kombucha. I think I don't think it tastes good at all.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

I thought you were doing something you missed one.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Oh no, I jumped past it. Oh, dang it. That's number eight.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Okay, we can we can stick with kombucha, it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Number eight, it or we're gonna say number seven is kombucha. Um I yes, there's this like probiotic benefit.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

It has some so there is there is a prebiotic probiotic nature to it, but similar to granola, it's eye and sugar. Because also if you know how kombucha is made, you understand that too. Because you need sugar. Yeah, you need it.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Yeah, and so like it the the sugar content just goes through the roof, and I just don't think it tastes good either.

SPEAKER_03 15:08

I think it depends on the brand. There are there's a few brands that I think are quite good. There's a there's a place in town that they do um sound infused kombucha. Have you heard of this?

SPEAKER_00 15:21

You mean like they play music to it?

SPEAKER_03 15:23

They literally when they're I think it's like when they're brewing it or whatever. There's it's not music, it's certain tones. It's fascinating. Fascinating. And I will say their kombucha is pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Interesting. All right, going back to what was seven, but now eight, this one, uh, I think people are gonna be very surprised on this list. And uh from our standpoint, it's not a surprise, but a lot of people are gonna be surprised.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

Plant-based meats.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Your hyper-processed plant-based meats, your impossible burgers, your all this kind of stuff. Well, they're plant-based. They're not a quality health food.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

No, they're highly, highly processed, and they usually have a ton of sodium and fat in them.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Oh, they're usually ridiculously chorically dense, and because of how they're made, their protein is suboptimal at best. And so they have to just fill it with emulsifiers and fats and all types of stuff to try to make it somewhat texturize and taste like a burger, and it's not. And I'd rather you just have a 90-10 ground beef burger than a freaking impossible burger that has half the protein and a just not like I don't get it.

unknown 16:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

But if you are a rare breed that enjoys an impossible burger, we're not saying you can't ever eat one.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

You can't say you can't, yeah, but but this idea that it's somehow like it's health food and it's like glorified. Well, if you look at from a finance lens, like I know, uh Impossible Burger, Impossible Meat, their their stock, I I don't know how they haven't gone bankrupt yet. They're down to like four cents a stock, like a uh a uh uh uh four cents a share.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

Why do you think that is? I mean, if people were enjoying it four years ago, why aren't they now?

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Well, because it was this classic of it got huge amounts of marketing behind it. They glorified it as his health food, they got it into Burger King and here and here and here, and it was celebrating, glorified as his health food. And then as you really started to unpack what it was, it just fell apart because it it tasted fine, but just didn't live up. From a health food perspective, it's just not that good. It's just so like so. You sit there and go, all right, the population that actually cares about their health would look at what an impossible burger was and was like, no. And then the population that doesn't care about their health are guess what? What are they doing? They're just gonna eat a full-fledged burger and do what they're normally gonna do, they're not gonna get hooked on it. So like they weren't able to fill either market very well, and so like no one buys it anymore.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

I don't know that I've ever had one.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

I think I've had one once a long time ago. It was uneventful. Right. But number nine is kind of goes off of our number one, if you ask me, fruit smoothies. The amount of and I used to do this too back in the day.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

I hear this one a lot.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yeah, I used to make these fruit smoothies with bananas and all this kind of stuff. And when push comes to shove, you're just drinking a bunch of sugar.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

Like And I mean, you can make them somewhat healthy, but a lot of people like if you go, have you ever been to Tropical Smoothie Cafe?

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

Yeah, and I mean like you're just eating, I mean, those things are huge. We actually back to our last um our last podcast episode, we had a drug rep bring in tropical smoothie cafe yesterday. And these things are massive. Yep. Like if you've ever made a smoothie at home and see how much you get out of whatever amount of fruit, the size that they give you a tropical smoothie cafe is like quadruple that. So I can't imagine how much sugar is in them.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Oh, they're huge. I mean, they're usually hundreds and hundreds of calories. Yeah, so so again, it's just like they're like it's just not they're liquid sugar, um, and then they throw in a couple things, but it's just a calorically dense. If your goal is go uh gaining uh gaining weight, it's a great option. Yes, that's true. It's not a health food in the sense of trying to help with weight management. No. Eat an apple, like same thing.

SPEAKER_03 19:26

Just eat the fruit.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Just eat the fruit.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

I will say I always tell people smoothies are slightly better than juice because there's people we should have had juicing on there.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Yeah, we probably should have had juicy.

SPEAKER_03 19:35

But we did have celery juice, but yeah. Anyways, um, at least you're getting some of the fiber in a smoothie, but yeah, too much sugar.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

All right. And number 10. This one hurts my soul.

SPEAKER_03 19:49

I knew you were gonna say that.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Alara, say it.

SPEAKER_03 19:53

David's favorite protein bars.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Uh yes. Um I I will accept them being on the overly overly glorified list as healthy.

SPEAKER_03 20:04

Why would you say that?

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Because it's not a good whole food thing. I eat too many. It doesn't fill me up the same way a baked chicken with quinoa and a salad would be.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

I love the taste of them. And occasionally I get caught eating three protein bars at a time. And when you add up the calories, it jumps quick. Not to mention my farts can get pretty nasty.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

Well, it's gonna say there is there's a lot to people get GI symptoms with too many protein bars because of the sugar alcohol.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Sugar alcohols and all the fiber that combo together.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

And uh it's not to say I I mean, I will eat a protein bar in the middle of the day if I'm busy and want a little extra protein, but I think relying on these as your meal is not.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

There was a period of time where I it was a pretty go-to strategy of mine, which again, it has its place, but it's overly glorified, is I'd eat two Quest bars and a premier protein shake, and that would be my lunch.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

And then you're hungry again in an hour. You're not doing that as much anymore.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

No.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

See, what if you just started thinking about the protein bar as a dessert instead of a meal? Would that help you eat less of them?

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Maybe, but they taste great. I like them.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

Just like cookies.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

I know.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

You don't need a cookie for a meal.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Occasionally.

SPEAKER_03 21:27

You don't.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

I know. I put it on the list. I put it on the list. I'm accepting the fact it's a weakness of mine. I I like I accept the fact it needs to be on the list. It still hurts.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

You heard it here, people.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

It still hurts.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

All right.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

All right, takeaways from this list.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

Takeaways are um that whole foods, uh, highly variable diet is the best option still. And don't there, you don't there's nothing you don't do fancy, unique things. Um, if something has a health claim on it, it probably is overblown.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

Exactly. So, for example, from my point of view, if someone says something is a superfood, immediately tune them out.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Unless it's two berries.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

The term superfood, I'm sorry, is just it's just like it's not real. It's not real. Superfood is not real. Like no, like this, I like I just hate how marketers just now everything's a freaking superfood, and then nothing's a superfood because everything's a superfood. And like they say this is a super the the new, the the new the carnivores love calling frickin' beef a superfood. Like blueberry. No, like I'm just so sick of diet culture just just just throwing the term superfood on something. Everyone does it. I don't care who it is. We need to stop using the term superfood. It's made up, it's not real. Like, we gotta stop it. Yes, sir. So when you hear the term superfood, immediately tune out what happens afterwards. I just think it would it would help people a lot with perspective if you stop falling for the gimmick of the word superfood.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Done.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

No superfood.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

No superfoods. Eat a variety, eat whole foods, don't fall for trends.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

But I think that's a great list. I do too. Um so hopefully you guys learned something about uh the top 10. I wonder if if any of you guys thought what you thought to be healthy was on this top left top ten. Uh, what was it and why did you consume it? And what's and what did they tell you about that? I'm very intrigued.

SPEAKER_03 23:26

And if there's any that you think we should have had on this list and didn't, comment down below. Please tell us. We can do this again or something similar.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Absolutely. So well, great episode.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Everybody, have a great weekend.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Uh have a great holiday season. We have that coming up here soon. Summer is here. Yeah, summer's here. And uh, if we can get a five-star rate and review for the podcast, we'd really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Please.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

And uh share with friends and family that you find this podcast uh should be helpful to. Hopefully, it's not in a passive aggressive statement because like they're anti everything we stand for. Occasionally that does happen. Um, and you guys all have a phenomenal weekend.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Bye.