Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson / Food Pyramid Blues: Influencers are not Scientists

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Food Pyramid Blues: Influencers are not Scientists · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

• 0:04
  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: Let me start with something we all can agree on.
• 0:06
  Eat real food, limit added sugar, avoid ultra
• 0:09
  processed junk. Good solid. Correct. Now, here's
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  the problem. That advice wasn't discovered last
• 0:17
  week, and pretending it was, while quietly
• 0:20
  sneaking in. Worse advice is how people get hurt
• 0:23
  and how policies don't get made. It's lazy.
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  Science and public policy. Today on 4Q, we're
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  going to talk about what happens when nutrition
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  stops being science and starts being branding. I,
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  um, am your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr.
• 0:42
  Terri Simpson, and this is Fork U Fork University,
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  where we make sense of the madness of the Maha
• 0:48
  public policy and teach you a little bit about
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  food and medicine. Let's set the table. Literally.
• 0:58
  Okay, maybe not literally. The New Dietary
• 1:01
  Guidelines and the Upside Down Pyramid have been
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  sold as a breakthrough, a reset, a, uh, moment of
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  truth. And to be fair, some of what they're saying
• 1:10
  is right. Ultra processed food has some problems.
• 1:13
  Added sugar should be limited and most people
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  should eat more whole foods. I've said that for
• 1:18
  years. So is almost everybody in the world of
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  nutrition. But when influencers say, see, we were
• 1:24
  right all along, my response is simple. You didn't
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  discover it, you copied it. Here's the danger.
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  It's not that they agree with the obvious stuff,
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  it's that they think they discovered it. Because
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  once you convince yourself you're the discoverer,
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  you also convince yourself you're qualified to
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  rewrite the rest of the science. And that's where
• 1:44
  things go off the rail. You cannot replace
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  scientists with influencers. Let me say that
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  again. We can't afford to replace scientists with
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  influencers. Nutrition science didn't come from
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  podcasts. It came from metabolic wards, from
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  cohort studies, from randomized trials, from
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  people being willing to have boring, cautious, and
• 2:07
  sometimes wrong experiments. And just to be clear,
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  there isn't a Mediterranean diet influencer
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  community. There's no dash diet movement. But
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  there are scientists and there are physicians and
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  there are registered dietitians that understand
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  nutrition. By contrast, there is a loud, low carb
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  and carnivore influencer ecosystem, complete with
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  brands, supplements, coaching programs, and
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  contrarian identity. The difference matters
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  because influence is not evidence. If you want to
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  know if someone understands nutrition science or
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  is just cosplaying it, ask them which matters
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  more, fiber or saturated fat? And here's what the
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  influencer crowd loves to say. Fiber isn't an
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  essential nutrient. Now, technically, that's true
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  in the narrowest biochemical sense, but it's
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  misleading because fiber is essential. If you like
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  a healthy gut microbiome, better. Insulin
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  sensitivity, lower Cardiovascular risk and normal
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  colonic function. Fiber feeds the bacteria that
• 3:07
  regulate inflammation and the metabolism. The
• 3:10
  entire field of research exists because of this.
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  Uh, contrast that with saturated fat. Saturated
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  fat is truly non essential. There is no deficiency
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  disease from not eating it. Your body makes all it
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  needs, and excess saturated fat raises LDL
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  cholesterol, worsens arterial health, and
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  increases cardiovascular risk. So ask why is fiber
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  dismissed as optional while saturated fat non
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  essential and harmful in excess is quietly
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  rehabilitated? That's not science. That is
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  ideology. And here's another simple brain. The
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  most important organ you own is largely made of
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  polyunsaturated fats. Yep, the same fats that are
• 3:56
  called seed oils. Now, you don't want saturated
• 4:00
  fat replacing the fats in those cell, uh,
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  membranes. But if you eat enough saturated fat, it
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  will. And you definitely don't want saturated fat
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  clogging the arteries supplying the brain. Unless
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  stroke and cognitive decline are part of your
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  plan. Biology doesn't care about your podcast
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  downloads. It doesn't care how good looking you
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  are without a shirt. It cares about what you put
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  into your body. And if you put enough saturated
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  fat going to replace cell membranes with saturated
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  fat instead of polyunsaturated fat, they will
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  become stiffer and harder and much more difficult
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  for you to negotiate life. I had an exchange
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  recently with Kali Means that illustrates the
• 4:38
  problem perfectly. His argument, in essence, was
• 4:40
  the government is finally calling out sugar and
• 4:43
  processed food and you should get behind that. And
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  my answer is simple. We already did years ago.
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  But. But when you act like you discovered it, you
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  also act like you're qualified to rewrite
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  everything else. And that's when bad ideas sneak
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  in. Agreeing with the basics doesn't earn you the
• 5:00
  keys to the lab. Now, here's the part that really
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  bothers me. After influencers took the place of
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  scientists, after they reframed the message and
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  claimed credit, they effectively said, okay,
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  America, you're on your own now. Eat real food.
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  Figure it out. Take responsibility. Now that's
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  easy if you're wealthy, mobile and online. It's
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  not so easy if you live in a food desert, rely on
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  school lunches, or work two jobs. Public health
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  exists because the willpower doesn't scale. And
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  here's the bottom line. Let me make it really
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  clear. Yes, eat real food. Yes, limit sugar. Yes,
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  minimize ultra processed food. We agree. But don't
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  pretend you discovered it. Don't replace science
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  with influencers. And don't sneak saturated fat
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  back while dismissing fiber. Because when
• 5:47
  confidence replace evidence, people don't get
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  healthier. They just get misled on 4Q. We believe
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  food should be delicious, practical and grounded
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  in evidence. And evidence doesn't care who said it
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  first, only whether it works. Data beats dogma,
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  science beats slogans, and health doesn't improve
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  when we trade researchers like Dr. Hall for
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  influencers like Cali Memes. This has been
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  researched and and written by me, Dr. Terry
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  Simpson. And while I am a board certified
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  physician and certified in culinary medicine, I am
• 6:23
  not your doctor. When you seek to make changes to
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  your diet, please see a registered dietitian and a
• 6:28
  board certified physician. Not some eastern
• 6:31
  trained person and certainly not a chiropractor.
• 6:34
  All things audio have been done by our friends at
• 6:36
  Simpler media and the pod God himself, Mr. Evotera
• 6:40
  and you can find blog and further information on
• 6:43
  my substack@drsimpson.com and
• 6:46
  yourdoctorsorders.com and for Q.com did you get
• 6:49
  enough.coms there? Because we like dot coms
• 6:52
  apparently. Anyway, have a good week everybody and
• 6:55
  remember illegitimi non carborundum. All right,
• 7:05
  Ebo, what do you think? I think that instead of
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  going to a doctor now we should just go to
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  influencers, health coaches and gym bros.
• 7:15
  >> Speaker B: Well you're the one with the giant TikTok
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  following influencer. Also, what the hell was that
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  Harry Potter sounding stuff at the end there? Oh,
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  and then there's this.
• 7:27
  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: And increases cardiovascular risk. Risk. And
• 7:32
  increases cardiovascular risk. I wonder if Ivo's
• 7:36
  gonna leave that in.
• 7:37
  >> Speaker B: Oh you do, do you? No you don't. And he's not.