Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson / Ultra-Processed Food Myths

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Ultra-Processed Food Myths · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

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  >> Speaker A: Today we're talking about ultra processed
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  foods, the boogeyman of modern
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  nutritionists. Every single
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  chiropractor and health person
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  wants to jump down the throat and tell you that
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  you shouldn't be eating these things. Some of them say they're going
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  to outlive cockroaches, the ultra processed food, and maybe
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  chiropractors. Others say they're the fast track
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  to doom. But what's the truth? Let's
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  dig in. As only a podcast called Fork
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  you can.
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  I am your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terri Simpson,
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  and this is Fork U Fork
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  University, where we bust a few myths, make
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  sense of the madness, and teach you a little bit about
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  food as medicine.
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  Let's start with definitions. Ultra
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  processed food, or UPF
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  if you want to sound like smart kids, sounds
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  like it was forged in a laboratory by mad
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  scientists in lab coats cackling as they add an extra
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  pinch of bad for you, seeking to make
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  people sick because they own part of the big
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  pharma. But in reality, ultra
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  processed food simply means food that's been
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  heavily modified from its original state, including, including
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  ingredients you wouldn't find in your grandmother's
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  pantry like emulsifiers, um, preservatives,
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  stabilizers. This means everything
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  from your favorite gas station hot dog
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  to those plant based meat alternatives
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  that some folks like me, actually are proudly shoveling down
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  instead of a burger. Yes, those vegan
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  nuggets are ultra processed food and welcome to the
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  club. But I want to go through some of the myths.
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  Lets start with myth one. They're all
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  toxic and will kill you instantly.
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  Listen, if ultra processed foods were that
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  deadly, the entire American population would have
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  been wiped out by the mid-1990s. While some
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  ultra processed foods are high in salt, sugar and fats,
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  they are not inherently toxic.
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  It's about how much you eat and what else,
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  uh, you're pairing with them. If your diet
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  consists solely of neon colored cheese puffs and
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  soda, which sounds like my teenage son.
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  Yes, your health might take a hit, but
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  a little moderation, not a problem.
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  Twinkies last forever. Look, Twinkies have
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  a long shelf life, but they are not immortal.
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  They're not going to be sitting in a time capsule a thousand years from
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  now waiting for archaeologists to take a bite.
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  They contain preservatives, sure, but nothing that
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  defies the laws of chemistry or
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  thermodynamics. The myth started after a
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  few poorly controlled experiments on old Twinkies, but in
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  reality, they get stale and they get
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  gross like any other
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  food.
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  Myth three, my favorite. If you can't
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  Pronounce an ingredient. It must be bad. This is my favorite
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  myth because by that logic I should avoid
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  eating cyanocobalbumin, which
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  is just vitamin B12, essential for your
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  nervous system. And of course there are some
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  silly people who say, oh my God, it's cyanide
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  in there, it's gotta be bad, it's killing you. And of course it's
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  not. Not all long
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  complicated words are bad for you. Some
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  are just the scientific names for
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  everyday things.
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  Dihydrogen monoxide, that's water.
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  But I'll bet it get banned if you put it on
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  a food label. And if
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  you see an ingredient that says meat, well that's got to be good. All it is
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  is meat. Wait until we break that
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  down and give chemical names to every little moiety in the
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  meat. Uh, that will sound scary.
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  The real problems with ultra processed food. Well,
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  here's the issue. Many ultra processed foods are
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  designed to be hyper processed, palatable.
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  Meaning they hijacked your brain's reward
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  system. Ever wonder why you can eat an entire
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  family sized bag of chips in one sitting? It's not
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  a lack of willpower, it's science.
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  Those foods, by hook or crook, are
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  simply irresistible. Not the scientists
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  were smart enough to make them that way. They just sort of
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  stumbled into it because we all know what we like to
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  taste. And ultra processed foods tend to
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  be calorie dense, but nutrient poor. You can eat a lot of them
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  without getting fiber, vitamins, minerals, not that much, much
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  protein. Things your body needs. That's
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  the real danger. Not that they exist, but they can
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  crowd out the good stuff. They don't take that much
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  room. Can you eat ultra processed foods and still
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  be healthy? Absolutely. The key is
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  balance. If your diet is 80% whole foods,
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  fruits, veggies, lean proteins, whole grains, then
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  20% processed ingredients isn't just going to wreck
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  you. The problem is in the United States, ultra
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  processed food make up anywhere from 70 to 80% of the diet of
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  the average American. And that's where the trouble
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  starts. There are those people
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  who are reductionists,
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  meaning they will take ultra processed food and say, see
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  the problem is, pick one. The problem is, uh,
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  high fructose corn syrup. We can show you. High
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  fructose corn syrup chemically is pretty similar to glucose, which
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  your body needs as its metabolic currency. Or
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  the problem is seed oils. That's the favorite one of the
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  carnivore crowd. And they'll say, oh, seed oils are ultra
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  processed and made with hexane. And we've covered this before
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  folks, seed Oils are vegetable oils.
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  Vegetable oils, when looked at in large studies, are
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  healthy. Now because vegetable oils are cheap, they're
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  put in all sorts of stuff. Your favorite
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  protein bar has a lot of vegetable oil and it doesn't mean it's healthy
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  or unhealthy. It's your protein bar. You
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  can eat a lot of them. And let's be
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  clear, when we have sort of classified
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  ultra processed food by a standard, but
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  we don't know if there's a single ingredient in there that's bad or
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  not. We do know that people, when given
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  ultra processed food, tend to eat about
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  500 calories more a day. Ever wonder
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  why we're eating more calories in the United States and in the
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  western world? It's because we're eating more
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  ultra processed food. Some people say we just need to put more
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  fiber in it. It's not that simple. Some people will say the answer is more
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  protein. It's not that simple. People want to make this
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  stuff simple when it's not.
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  Ultra processed food has some benefits. Did
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  you know that? Let me give you a few. They have a strong
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  shelf life, a long, long, strong
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  shelf life. Is that bad? The Twinkies lasting
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  forever? No, it's not.
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  Why? Well, the only thing worse than
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  obesity is starvation. And when you have shelp
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  stable food, you can live through
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  famine. If you're going to eat only whole
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  unprocessed foods, let me remind you, when
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  you got healthy and decided to put all those fruits and vegetables in
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  your crisper in the refrigerator, they weren't so
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  crisp after a while, were they? But the
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  frozen fruits and vegetables picked at the ripeness, they were
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  fine. The canned fruits and vegetables, they were
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  fine. It's great if you can afford to go to and
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  live in a place like I do in California and go to a farmer's market and eat
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  that way. But even I don't. Here's the
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  thing. Ultra processed food
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  may have been a key that hit the reward
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  center that allowed obesity to unlock
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  for which we now have medications to control.
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  Maybe we don't have proof of that.
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  So it's really nice when people say you should only eat this, that
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  or the other thing. The answer is it's not that
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  simple. Yep, whole unprocessed food is the way to go.
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  We'd like you to be on the Mediterranean night eating those things that
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  are fresh and delicious. The answer is
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  you're not going to die if you eat some kettle
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  corn. And if you don't want the kettle corn,
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  send it to me. Ultra
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  processed food it's not the enemy. It's a
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  tool for nutrition. It can
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  be good, it can be bad. There's a lot of research to go
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  into it. So when those people who are
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  shirtless salesmen of supplements and scams
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  trying to say it's bad while they're selling you their own
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  version of ultra processed food, usually like this is
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  purified bovine liver or whatever
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  they sell, that's ultra
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  processed crap.
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  All right, that should be it for my rant for
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  today. This is Dr. Terri
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  Simpson was written and directed by me.
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  And while I am a physician, I am
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  not your physician. If you're going to change your diet to
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  a healthy diet like the Mediterranean, or an unhealthy diet like
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  keto or Carnivore, please consult with a western trained
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  physician with a board certified credentials and
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  a registered dietitian. Don't check with a
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  chiropractor. Don't check with an Eastern medicine person.
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  God. Don't check with the functional medicine people who want to get hundreds of
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  ccs of blood out of your arm and charge you a
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  lot, you don't need them. We were
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  distributed by our friends at Simpler Media, the pod God, Mr.
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  Evo Terra. And we were produced,
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  even though she never wants to admit it, by our friend
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  Producer Girl Production, who, when you are
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  listening to this, will be celebrating 15
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  years of CO producing this
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  podcast over its many years and many
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  forms. I don't know what you get a producer of
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  15 years. Probably
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  Xanax, then Wellbutrin.
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  I'm not sure. All right, thanks for
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  listening. Have a good week.
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  Hey, Ivo, what's your favorite ultra processed
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  food? I kind of vary between Reese's
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  peanut butter cups and wine.
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  >> Speaker B: Yeah, color me shock there, wino.
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  Uh, I. I can't keep chips
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  or snacky foods like that in the
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  house because, yeah, I'm that guy that will eat the
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  entire bag and I don't want to be that guy
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  anymore. So, yeah.