The Nutrition Grouch

Half of the things that we think we “have to do” are not essential.  “I have to watch that football game”.  “I have to get my daughter’s teacher a Christmas present”.  “I have to get new clothes for work”.   “I have to get to the gym today”.

And many of the things that we “obsess about” and the goals that we pursue in the long term, really aren’t all that important in the grand scheme of things.  And yet we keep ourselves so busy pursuing things that are not essential to our health and happiness.  

In today’s episode the Nutrition Grouch suggests that you take the time to figure out what your “core essentials” are to your health and happiness on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis.  Figure out what you actually “really” need to take care of to further your health and happiness and what things can you forget about or let slide.

I’m not saying that we forgo our duties and responsibilities, aim for mediocrity, be lazy or take the easy path, rather there are things in this life that matter and things that do not.  Put your time and energy into the things that matter and minimize the rest.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Not everyone needs the drive of Tom Brady to be successful (1:57)
• Sometimes the right conditions are more important than talent for success (3:50)
• Aaron Rodgers won a Super Bowl and said, “now what?” (8:50)
• Singular obsessions and mastering your craft (10:08)
• Everyone’s got trauma: my PhD and career are mine (11:44)
• My obsession with nutrition education hasn’t led to success (13:08)
• I’m just not willing to “play the game” (14:04)
• Changing the culture of health & wellness and your relationship with it (15:29)
• The dark side of obsessions: unintended consequences (19:21)
• Finding like-minded, science-based wellness people is nearly impossible (23:20)
• Team up together or get squashed (26:12)
• Do what you are designed to do (29:06)
• A Buffalo Bills Super Bowl will never be enough (32:28)
• I HATE Christmas (37:15)
• My problem with “Forced Holidays” (37:57)
• Giving and receiving gifts is not my cup of tea (40:24)
• The time I found out why saying “Good Morning” is SO IMPORTANT (41:39)
• I have a two activities per weekend limit (43:21)
• If you seek tranquility, do less (44:43)
• Our pace of life, diet, and lifestyle are NOT normal, but it doesn’t have to be this way (46:09)
• What’s enough?: daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals (51:41)
• Unrestrained moderation (53:58)

How much of anything do you really need?  What’s enough to make you happy?  In today’s episode The Nutrition Grouch wrestles with the idea of “what’s enough?”.

So many of us have so much, and yet, it never seems to be enough.  Humans have an insatiable appetite for more.  But more isn’t always better and more doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness.

In obesity, we clearly have exceeded, “what’s enough?”, in terms of calories.  But why do we consume some so many calories in the first place?  I think it at least partially has to do with our appetite for more, leading us to overextend, spread ourselves too thin, and stress ourselves out.

So, in asking, “what’s enough?”, I’m not only asking you to consider what’s enough in terms of calories and pleasure, but I’m searching much further into everything outside of nutrition in your day-to-day lives, material possessions, needs, wants, and desires.

By asking, “what’s enough?”, and scaling back on both our caloric and non-caloric needs, wants, and desires, perhaps we can reset our “what’s enough?” equilibrium and carve out more time for meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking, things that will ultimately lead to increased health and happiness.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• What’s Enough?, is not minimalism, it’s more like essentialism (1:41)
• The myth of “having it all” and being able to “do it all” (2:10)
• It sucks getting rid of something you later actually need (6:16)
• What were some of your greatest Christmas gifts growing up? (9:05)
• Expectation setting (9:05)
• The Joneses aren’t that happy (11:32)
• Can money buy you happiness? Yes and no (13:39)
• Focusing on what you don’t have rather than what you do have (18:02)
• “If you’ve got your health, you’ve got the world by the balls” (25:52)
• How many cups of coffee do you drink? (28:19)
• Use only what you need (29:29)
• Flattening your high (31:36)
• Dopamine fasting misses the point (34:01)
• The Hungry Brain’s advice: moderate palatability foods (36:06)
• What’s Enough: Food Frequency, Portion Size, Energy Density (42:27)
• Mel Robbins: The Let Them Theory (49:26)

The world, technology, and the pace of our lives seems to move faster and faster each year.  Your life not that long ago is different in so many ways from the one you’re living today.  But what about the food you eat?  Has that changed?  To any casual social media observer, dietary advice and what you’re supposed to eat seems to change every day.

And yet, dietary advice has barely budged in the last 40 years!  Starting in 1980, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) have encouraged Americans to limit saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, alcohol, and yes, excess sugar.

In today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch talks about how the low-carbohydrate advocates rail against the DGAs as being too carbohydrate based, yet their wish to make the DGAs more fat and protein based are historically, environmentally, health, and budgetarily impractical.

Overly reductionist scientific factoids and tidbits are great for producing unlimited social media content but lack the big picture programming, interconnectedness, and nuance, housed Ato Z in one location, required for successful lifestyle change and optimal wellness.

And finally, the Grouch wishes we could burn all of health & wellness down and start over, beginning anew with only those who meet a minimum bar of competence.  But he knows that won’t happen because marketing, persuasion, and entertainment are what drives nutrition, not cold hard facts and science. 

Weight loss advice in 2035 will probably look a lot like it looks in 2025.  The 5 Universal Laws of Weight Loss, Your Behavioral Obesity Risk Score (BORS), The 3 and Only 3 Ways to Cut Calories, and Nutrition Rules and Decision Fatigue will remain pillars of any good lifestyle management plan.  There are no magic cures, quick fixes, or even science (outside of GLP-1s) coming to save us. 

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• 1980: the first edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) (3:27)
• The 7 dietary guidelines of 1980 (3:50)
• The 4 dietary guidelines of 2020 – 2025 (4:13)
• The DGAs have NEVER promoted eating sugar (5:28)
• It’s easier to reduce saturated fat than it is to reduce carbohydrate (8:12)
• It’s completely impractical for everyone to eat low carb (8:54)
• Food labeling is so deceptive (and yet within the rules) (10:58)
• When fad diets become part of your personal identity (14:01)
• Mainstream, regular diet advice is BORING! (16:34)
• Why are we obese? Occam’s razor: too many calories (17:24)
• Keeping the nutrition waters muddy is advantageous to most (22:27)
• Why social media cannot and will never work for nutrition education (23:24)
• People are ok with being lied to if it makes them feel safe/ok (28:32)
• In dieting, nothing is ever new, everything is just recycled (30:09)
• All of nutrition can be viewed through one of two lenses/camps (32:45)
• Exercising cells in a flask is not exercise (36:48)
• I hate supplements, especially in grocery stores (40:10)
• An endless amount of overly reductionist nutrition advice (42:18)
• Who is best at giving nutrition advice? (43:52)
• Timeless nutrition advice (49:32)
• Blow up health & wellness and start over from scratch (54:22)
• Marketing and entertainment will always dominate nutrition (56:17)
• The ENORMOUS DANGER of non expert persuasive speech (58:55)

Food addiction is a somewhat controversial topic.  Can you really be “addicted” to something necessary for life (i.e., food, air, water)?  Based upon the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), the technical answer is, yes.

In today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch asks whether the identification of food addiction is helpful to clients and practitioners in losing weight or whether it provides a “permission structure” enabling them to continue eating junk food and becoming an excuse for their ultimate failure.

Based on the YFAS, 25% of people with overweight or obesity are food addicted but interestingly, so are 11% of normal weight individuals.  Is food addiction concept creep or a simple expression such as “I’m starving” or “I’m freezing” or is there something more to it?

While there’s no clear answer to any of these questions, the frontline therapies for people with and without food addiction for weight loss are very similar: medications, lifestyle modification, and bariatric surgery.  We love to blame individuals for addictions; however, culture and environment are often overlooked, ignored or downplayed.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Food addiction as concept creep (0:28)
• Is food addiction a permission structure to eat junk food? (3:51)
• Food addiction OR life circumstances and food environment? (5:53)
• Sometimes your best still just isn’t good enough (7:52)
• I’m a defender of fast food, carbs, and ultra processed food (15:36)
• Junk food in “selective moderation” (15:57)
• Nutrition rules, self-binding, and setting boundaries (17:26)
• Eliminate problematic foods you can’t control from your diet (18:14)
• The two most accepted methods for identifying food addiction (21:15)
• Food addiction prevalence: 25% with overweight/obese and 11% lean individuals (27:07)
• Food addiction may be relatively short lived, transient, and self-correcting (31:08)
• Is food addiction real? Yes, but you may have to squint to see it (31:48)
• How do we treat food addiction? (32:20)
• There’s essentially no difference in how you treat someone with or without food addiction (37:08)
• I prefer “level of problematic eating” to the term food addiction (39:19)
• Chocolate, sex, nicotine, cocaine, and amphetamines (41:40)
• What heroin users during the Vietnam war taught us about addiction (45:00)
• The woman who just couldn’t stop eating McDonalds (48:12)
• I can’t put food addiction in the same category as other addictions (49:47)

There’s literally nothing you can eat that is universally agreed upon to be good for you.  Not even fruits and vegetables.  You can build out the old food guide pyramid with the foods that people are judging, demonizing, and vilifying with every single category: grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy.  So, what then are we supposed to eat?

The basis of all fad diets is fear, avoidance, and demonization that is largely determined not by scientific evidence or superior results, rather, is based upon personal preference and rationalization/justification.

In the United States we have a calories problem and there is no “superfooding”, or “nutrienting” our way out of it.  Food judgement and demonization makes some foods untouchable and off-limits but then also limits the options that we have to reduce our calories through portion control and selective moderation.

Each food is a tool, a means to an end.  There are no “good” foods or “bad” foods.  Some foods are nutrient dense and fulfill our nutrient needs while others are for pure pleasure.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Food situations I have been judged for (0:50)
• Everything You Eat Will Kill You! (8:48)
• Clean eating perfectionist health nirvana utopia (11:03)
• Weight Loss: It’s Not (All) About the Food (12:48)
• Is It Better to Eat 5 or 15 Servings of Fruits and Vegetables? (14:15)
• I don’t really like eating fruits and vegetables (15:33)
• Everyone rationalizes and justifies what they eat (17:25)
• I really like clean eating, but they take it a step too far (21:12)
• When the benefit of clean eating wears off (22:27)
• I’m not a huge fan of cheat days (27:27)
• How Much Junk Food is Too Much Junk Food? (28:34)
• The basis of all fad diets: fear, avoidance, and demonization (30:33)
• Different purposes: there are no “good” or “bad” foods (35:05)

Weight loss is the result of consuming less calories than you burn (calories in < calories out).  Most weight loss diets are sold to you with the idea that some foods are “good” for you (i.e., fat and protein) while others are “bad” for you (i.e., carbs and ultra processed foods).  There is a notion that if you just stopped eating the “wrong” foods and replaced them with the “right” foods that you’ll lose weight.

But what exactly are these “right” foods and “wrong” foods?  Diets focused on eliminating ultra processed foods (Paleo), eating the right macronutrients (Keto, Atkins), manipulating meal timing (alternate day fasting, time restricted feeding), and reducing hunger (Keto, high protein) aren’t any more effective than one another or their opposite counterparts.  But why is that?

Maybe it’s because weight loss, despite being treated like a good food bad food math equation, isn’t actually about the food at all.  14 of 25 weight change correlations are not directly related to food, only 2 of the 9 factors associated with increased longevity are connected to food, and only 1 of 8 categories of wellbeing are associated with nutrition.

In today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch talks about exploring some of the “upstream” decisions that determine what we eat and how much of it we eat.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Why do we try to solve the problem with the problem? (0:26)
• Ultra-processed food, macros, meal timing, and hunger don’t really matter (1:25)
• Food has no inherent meaning, only the one you attach to it (6:28)
• 14 of 25 weight change correlations are not about food (7:31)
• Only 2 of 9 longevity factors are about the food (8:36)
• The Blue Zones and “the Power 9” (9:09)
• Nutrition: only 1 part of 8 components of wellness (12:14)
• Like an NFL quarterback, nutrition gets too much credit and too much blame (14:39)
• Can you achieve wellness without good nutrition? (16:55)
• Can you have good wellbeing with only good nutrition? (17:41)
• What are a few simple questions to ask yourself to be well? (18:19)
• What’s enough? (20:09)
• Everything in “selective moderation” (21:32)
• What is essential? (23:46)
• The myth of “having it all” (24:54)
• Try to ignore the noise, which is almost everything (29:11)
• The opposite argument, weight loss IS all about the food (32:48)
• I’m absolutely against food warning labels (33:50)
• My problem with blaming ultra-processed foods (35:49)
• Our ancestors would have killed for our modern food environment (39:57)

In today’s episode Todd discusses the 25 things that DO MATTER for weight change and the 14 things that DO NOT seem to matter to weight change, based on his analysis of The Paper Database.

He also discusses the possibility/utility of creating a weight change (loss) app called the “Behavioral Obesity Risk Score" (BORS) to help you assess your risk of becoming and/or staying obese based upon your diet, lifestyle, environment, and emotional regulation.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• What is your Behavioral Obesity Risk Score (BORS)? (0:55)
• In nutrition, everything is relative (1:16)
• The law of diminishing returns (5:31)
• Breakfast eating weight gainers be damned! (8:13)
• Be cautious in going down the “but I’m different” rabbit hole (10:18)
• I despise gamification and wellness challenges, but I could do it with BORS (14:11)

Things that DO MATTER for weight change (21:41)

• #1: Driving (21:50)
• #2: Emotional Eating (23:13)
• #3: Depression (26:00)
• #4: Short Sleep Duration (29:06)
• #5: Shift Work (30:48)
• #6: Evening Chronotype (31:51)
• #7: The Holidays (32:41)
• #8: Overeating Occasions/Celebrations (34:10)
• #9: Weekends (36:08)
• #10: Full Fat Dairy (37:37)
• #11: Soup (39:18)
• #12: Liquor (40:44)
• #13: Energy Density & Portion Size (41:30)
• #14: Cognitive Restraint (42:50)
• #15: Palatability (43:58)
• #16: Socioeconomic (45:55)
• #17: Nuts & Cereal (48:31)
• #18: Dieting vs. Dietary Restraint (50:04)
• #19: Age (51:45)
• #20: Early Weight Loss & Adaptive Thermogenesis (52:52)

Things that DO NOT seem to MATTER for weight change (54:35)

• #1: The % of Macros in the Diet (ratio of carbs, fats, & protein) (54:44)
• #2: Diet Type (55:32)
• #3: Glycemic Index & the Carbohydrate/Insulin Hypothesis (55:56)
• #4: Small Frequent Meals (57:25)
• #5: Fat Burning (58:09)
• #6: Breakfast (59:54)
• #7: Nutrition Education/Food Labels (1:00:33)
• #8: Exercise Type (1:05:09)
• #9: Eating Speed (1:05:26)
• #10: Plate Size (1:08:40)
• #11: Hunger/Appetite (1:10:31)
• #12: Food Craving (1:11:18)
• #13: Stepped Care (1:11:18)
• #14: Marijuana Use  (1:11:18)
• Other Considerations: Time & Money

There are hundreds of diet types and thousands of diet do’s and diet don’ts for weight loss.  And yet, what does every diet type have in common?  The 5 Universal Laws of Weight Loss.

It doesn’t matter if you eat low carb or high carb, low fat or high fat, Paleo, Keto, or alternate day fast.  Eat fat to burn fat, lift weights or run, drink water before meals, eat after 6pm, eat slowly, avoid carbs to keep your insulin low, protein and keto to suppress your appetite, or avoid ultra processed foods like the plague.

All of the (oftentimes) contradictory, factoids and tidbits, hacks, tips, and tricks do not matter.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Weight loss advice hasn’t changed for decades, and it won’t change (2:03)
• A comprehensive list of all the diet interventions for weight loss (3:26)
• Should SNAP benefits really exclude soda? (7:51)
• If all diets suck the same, can I just pick the one I like? (10:51)
• Stay suffering in the familiar or embrace freedom and uncertainty? (12:11)
• The 5 Universal Laws of Weight Loss are… (15:05)
• #1 Meal plan to create a calorie deficit (15:25)
• #2 Log your food daily and self-correct as needed (19:59)
• How long do I have to food log for? (21:08)
• Food logging is really just “checking your work” (23:06)
• Hunger, satiety, and intuitive eating are relatively worthless in the 21st century (24:09)
• Food logging in real time, not daily (24:32)
• #3 Exercise 300 minutes a week (25:22)
• Will Smith, Hugh Jackman, and the jacked Cross-Fitter (28:23)
• Todd’s exercise history and the importance of being flexible (33:35)
• I’ve never regretted doing a workout (43:03)
• Don’t worry about doing things right or knowing what to do (44:39)
• #4 Weigh yourself at least once weekly (46:41)
• #5 Control your food environment (51:48)

To lose weight, the standard advice is to follow this simple formula: estimate your metabolic rate to see how many calories you burn (calories out), then log your food to make sure you consume (calories in) fewer calories than you burn.  By creating a deficit of say, 500 calories a day, you will lose one pound of body mass per week…or so the thinking goes.

If only losing weight were that simple.  Energy balance (calories in – calories out) is the foundation of weight loss; however, the 3500 calorie rule for weight loss is misleading, we’re terrible at estimating your metabolic rate (calories out) and we aren’t great at measuring the calories you consume (calories in).  We’re playing the weight loss game with faulty information.

People want to know their metabolic rate, because they want to know how many calories they can get away with eating and still lose weight.  I believe this is the wrong approach and only leads to consuming too many calories a day to achieve the type of weight loss you’re looking for.

Losing weight is a social, emotional, environmental problem, not a math problem.  Instead of continuing to overutilize food for pleasure, we need to (temporarily) redefine our relationship with food, build in a “margin of safety” by eating far fewer calories than the typical weight loss diet prescribes, and live with the results, knowing that you did your absolute best.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Why do we feel the need to estimate your metabolic rate? (1:11)
• We should use total daily energy expenditure, not metabolic rate (1:58)
• The Amazing Chewing Gum Diet for Detoxing and Weight Loss! (4:55)
• The two ways to measure (estimate) your metabolic rate in a lab (7:13)
• The third option to estimate your metabolic rate: an equation (13:03)
• A real life example(s) of equations being way, way off (14:16)
• The math that goes into losing weight (16:02)
• Most people with obesity actually have really high metabolic rates (16:47)
• Enlarged organs and metabolic rates in obesity and sumo wrestlers (17:19)
• How many calories can I get away with eating? Why we really measure metabolic rates (20:33)
• People notoriously underestimate the number of calories they consume (calories in) (21:35)
• We aren’t very good at estimating calories in OR calories out (22:17)
• Why you should eat the same number of calories regardless of your metabolic rate (22:44)
• Diets aren’t supposed to be fun, they’re a means to an end (23:26)
• Hypothesized weight loss in total starvation, 500, 800 calories a day for 8 weeks (25:36)
• You can only go down to eating “0” calories a day but eating more than 3,000 is easy (27:36)
• Your weight loss “margin of safety” (28:07)
• My confession about a mistake that I’ve made (29:56)
• Calorie counting (food logging) is a necessary evil (31:10)
• The precision we try to prescribe weight loss diets with is absurd and ridiculous (32:39)

Low carb, low fat, high protein, alternate day fasting, cutting out ultra processed food, eating multiple small meals a day, time restricted feeding, Keto, Paleo, you name it, what do they all have in common (besides energy balance)?  They all rely on some variation of the 3 and only 3 ways to cut calories.  

Although all diets claim to have their own “special secrets”, “magic recipes” and/or fancy narratives on how and why they work, they all use some combination of portion control, food frequency, and energy density to reduce the number of calories you eat each day.

We have 41 different well studied diet types, and yet, they all depend on just three calorie cutting methods.  In today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch discusses how to utilize these three strategies in establishing your nutrition rules and controlling your food environment to create a diet that you can stick to for the long term.

Only you can decide what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat.  There’s just too many variables and too many decisions to be made for someone else to tell you how to do it.  It’s daunting and difficult to start.  But it’s worth it.  You get out, what you put into it.  Take the time to start building a solid diet foundation today.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• The 3 and only 3 ways to cut calories (1:50)
• Fad diets are a one trick pony (4:02)
• Fad diets: an overly crude and blunt instrument for a complex problem (4:43)
• People hate uncertainty, fad diets solve this (5:46)
• Food logging: you ate what you ate, big deal, please don’t take it personally (7:29)
• Fad diets are a “quick fix, get rich quick scheme” often ending in ruin (8:54)
• Should you build your house on sand or stone? (12:20)
• Fad diets are fool’s gold (13:30)
• The portion size, food frequency, and energy density of breakfast tacos (14:07)
• My reluctance to use reduced fat and/or artificially sweetened products (24:49)
• Food logging sucks but you have to do it (28:10)
• Weight loss should be psychology based, not math based (33:27)