Hi Chris, I am a vegan/plant based family medicine practitioner (GP) in Australia. I listen to you for an hour every day (while driving to and from work) and I can't thank you enough for your in-depth research and presentation of the medical literature. Please never stop making these videos. You have contributed more to my knowledge of nutrition than any textbook, professor or mentor. You're a treasure and thank you, for being YOU!
Thank you! Plant based GPs are my heroes. 👏 My son in law is one and I adore him. Sometimes I feel unqualified to do this and that’s probably what drives me to make every reference as airtight as possible.
@@PlantChompers Is he the one who you mentioned as having been obese at one time? I see a psychiatrist who went to Harvard and he's morbidly obese. Whether you're a vegan or a keto/Paleo there's no controversy about how unhealthy it is to be obese but many healthcare professionals are not doing any better with controlling their weight than the average truck driver. Homosapiens are complicated. Knowledge alone isn't enough for everyone to do what is rational. Thee end, good luck. Suggestion, find someone worth interviewing who knows a lot about the evolution connection explanations for why many people can't/don't change the way they eat and live.
I discovered your channel last year, and it helped me to find my way back to myself. I come from a die-hard French eating culture - breakfast, lunch, and dinner with everyone sitting at the table and eating food made from scratch. I've been a vegan for 10 years (purely for ethical reasons). Then I wanted to lose some weight and became a primarily keto vegan and intermittent faster. I became as thin as I was when I was 18 (I'm 58). Without realizing it, I also became obsessed with food and exercise. Then last year, I started to have crazy cravings (which I'd never experienced in all my life) and gained 15 kg in less than a year. With the help of your content, I decided to stop keto, OMAD, and general fitness hysteria and went back to listening to my body. So, I reconnected with starchy food, fruits, and the occasional vegan cookies and slowly lost 12kg. Never again will I listen to diet gurus and their disruptive food ukase! Thank you.
Your story reminds me a bit of my own. Through my mothers cooking I grew up on something close to the mediterranean diet. I started eating vegan like 8 years ago also due to ethical reasons. But I had no clue about nutrition. I never had weight issues, no matter what or how much I ate. So I just ate vegan without looking into the health aspect. 3 years ago I started to incorporate some fish and cheese again because the vegan diet felt too restrictive to me. I have been struggling with mental and neurological disorders since my childhood and a person in my family who suffers from similar conditions went keto and he said it solved a lot of his issues. Reluctantly I gave it a try myself. I was desperate. I wanted something to change in my life. Something around 3 to 6 months in I got a myriad of physical issues that I have never had in my life. Gastritis, Prostate pain, trouble breathing, chest pain, worsened eye sight. I had these symptoms for around 2 or 3 months. Some how I still didn't (want to) connect these changes to my diet. I still remember nearly passing out after trying to get back to a normal diet, eating an Orange or some oatmeal. I must have become completely insulin resistant on the keto diet. Through gods grace I found resources like Plant Chompers, Physicians Committee and Nutrition Mad Simple. I went back to a vegan diet. This time whole-food and low fat. My gastric problems went away, my prostate problems went away and my eyes are better than ever. I still have some issues with breath and chest pain but it's getting better too. It didn't cure my mental and neurological issues but at least I'm alive again. Now I'm incorporating more healthy fats back into my diet and some occasional fish. Trying to listen to my body and taking the whole-food vegan low-fat diet as my foundation to come back to if something doesn't work.
@@earllemongrab7960 Have you seen a psychiatrist? Are you on any meds for anxiety or depression or whatever else you are referring to but not being very specific about?
Hi @@jackschitt6235, thx for your concern. I have been seeing psychiatrists, therapists and have been trying different medications for around 15 years. I have struggled with anxiety, depression, emotional abuse. After a burn out 10 years ago I have been late diagnosed with ASD at age of 30. I am 35 now. I am mostly free from suffering if I stay at home and precisely dose how much I interact with the outside world. My life wasn't always this restrictive. I used to be more resilient. Not having the right kind of help early in life has accumulated a lot of trauma, which is hard to get rid of. All the treatments that I have tried didn't give me back my QOL, they just made me suffer less. In the end all the doctors could offer me was for me to accept my condition and work around it. That's how I came to try keto, out of desperation. I don't like giving up.
@Earl Lemongrab it will Earl, just focus on the good omegas, zinc, b12, vit D, iodine, and magnesium, and all the food will cover the other important micronutrients. Get your omega 3s from plants and algae based omega 3 supplements. Keep that up for 4onths and see how you feel. 1 to 2 oz of fats only of buts each day as Dr Furhman suggests. The only thing I'm not sure of is conversion of k1 to k2 in our guts but try and have 2 to 3 cups of different greens a day and I'm sure conversion will be fine!
I watched this episode twice, once with my husband and daughter. Who indulge in my vegan dinners, but eat a standard American diet the rest of the time. It has been a fight, because they think my food is not tasty. And now I am understanding that I am fighting a losing battle. I need to make our health a bigger priority! Thank you again for making video's great! My husband even laughed!
you could salt+fat to their taste and slowly reduce it over the course of a few years. Do not do this secretly I am not advocating deception. It is your desire to share veganism with them, not your duty, they have accepted it so far as to sit at the dinner table. They may not share your desire for "health". Simply put, we are not all "DOOOOMED" to obesity if we eat "Junk food". The big data completely destroys the context of individual experience and while it is clear that high fat and high salt foods are "super yummy" it is also true that countless people can and do enjoy healthy and strong lives on "Junk food" and should not be judged or controlled for any notions you have pertaining to their personal experience of life.
Yes check out The Pleasure Trap book. That book came out many years ago and it talks about the same thing. All the processing and added salt oil and sugars make us overeat. Then when we try to eat actual food our tasted buds can't taste it so it tastes like crap. They compare it to a bright light and your eyes get used to the bright light. Then you go in a dark room and can't see anything until a few mins go by then you can start to make things out in the room. Same with our taste buds. We have to stop eating this junk food and give our taste buds time to adjust back to tasting real food. I took awhile for me but I am able to taste the sweetness of a Brussel sprout now.
I'm about to start year 3 of my weight loss journey, currently down -80 LBS (from 245 to 165) and I can't tell you how many of my friends and family have lost weight from Ketogenic diets. Virtually none of them has maintained their weight loss. I started my journey because I was diagnosed with heart disease, metabolic disease, and was at high risk of a serious cardiac event. As such, I decided against keto because I was concerned about how all that saturated fat might exacerbate my heart trouble. I went down the plant based diet, consisting mostly of homemade meals originating from fresh vegetables, nuts, and occasional fish. When I began I was ridiculed since my weight came off slowly and the food I ate didn't seem very palatable but its a whole different story today since I'm the only one in my social circle who has not only maintained my weight loss but have managed to build a considerable amount of muscle mass too! My new life motto is stolen from Michael Pollen: Eat Food, Mostly Plants, Not Too Much
80 pounds!! 👏 245 to 165 is hard to do - my hat is off to you. I'll bet your bloodwork is light years ahead of what it was too. I know a few people who've lost weight on Keto and kept it off, but the numbers are few and their bloodwork is often scary.
@@PlantChompers 63lbs lost here. Low carb for almost 5 years now. I do walk almost 20 000 steps a day and do some weight lifting as well (dumbell), but my diet is very high in REAL food such as eggs almost daily, bacon, butter, cream, bacon, wild caught fish, but also plenty of nuts, some vegetables and a few SELECT fruits, mostly berries. HDL is 42 and LDL is 86. Triglycerides were 66 down from almost 200 a few years ago. I believe keto is good for short term quick weight loss, but should be modified to low carb, low processed food, low excess sugar after a few months. It is much most feasible long term IMO. Checked my blood pressure yesterday for the fun of it and after realxing for a few minutes in the pharmacy, was at 120 over 72. My typical reading was closer to 145 when I first started... Here's a little video I made a few months ago : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wP2FNFfNcCc.html&t
The part about how a recipe can become hyper palatable over time even if the ingredients list doesn't change because we keep selective breeding them for hyper palatability was so scary to me, and it's such a drastic shift in only 20 years. Maybe in 30 years peanuts will be as fatty as pili nuts and I'll be 200 pounds because of eating so many fresh salads. It's terrifying.
@@PlantChompers Me too. Shouldn't natural selection kick in at some point? Either people start tolerating hyper-palatable foods or enough people die off from them that the surviving people don't find them so palatable? It's so crazy-opposite to what is conducive to survival of the species.
removing added salt as a vegan was a game changer. it's so nice to just be able to eat what you need and not feel full sick at every meal. that's the signal i look for and i think it pretty much maps to hpfs. we can develop this inner awareness and take control. not easy but doable.
@@gosiak3267 I have low blood pressure and avoid foods with added salt. I don't use straight up salt in my cooking either. But I do use things like miso paste, seaweed like nori and kelp. Those are healthy sources of some salt and iodine. Blood pressure still low, but no light headedness.
I seriously don't understand why Tera's papers are not making media headlines right now, meanwhile a diabetic medicine like ozempic is in shortage, what a world we live in 😓
@@Fearzero Capitalism is what is putting you in the grave because they'd rather fatten you up with salt, sugar and fat, to line their pockets with money (too reduce their cost), and not support your health with healthy food.
I always look forward to your productions, Chris. I’ve been plant-based for 13 years, slowly improving the content of my diet from videos like yours. Thank you.
You make great content. I mostly follow mcdougall but recently read The Pleasure Trap for the 1st time and I believe they are spot on. They been talking about how added salt oil sugar overrides or satiety mechanism. I will absolutely crush a mcdougall style dish if I put ketchup or BBQ sauce on it. But if I just leave it bland and throw on a few spices I feel full and not even half the dish it done. I think you're right in this video and very lined up with what The Pleasure Trap says. These "foods" override our satiety mechanisms and its why 80% of the population is overweight. I hate seeing "natural flavoring" added to so many "foods" as well. I can't even find a vegetable brooth that is no salt and no "flavorings" added to it.
@@mattzilla331 Americans weren't overwight till the food industrial complex convinced people used seed oil which used to lubricate machines. If it is not broken don't fix it.
@danpan001 a lot of stuff changed besides ppl ditching butter. Butter and lard is a huge problem. Look up the North Karelia Project. Finland had the worst heart disease rates in the world. It was just "normal" for otherwise fit looking men and women to have heart attacks in their 40s. Finland was able to get them to ditch the animal fats for vegetable fats and there cardiovascular death rate dropped by 85%! So no. Butter and lard isn't better. The evidence against them is overwhelming. Ppl need to get off junk food and less TV move more. It's well established what's caused the obesity epidemic. More processed food and less movement.
This has got to be one of the most underrated videos on nutrition I’ve ever seen. As a nutritionist I appreciate SO MUCH how you distill the scientific consensus down into palatable bits! Not to mention the new science on this classification of hyper palatable foods. I will definitely start looking more into this and integrating this info.
The wide ranging portfolio of different sources of information you have gone through is absolutely insane, truly. I myself fight this fight against the food status quo, but honestly, anyone, with scientific background or not, tries to make a case against a plant based way of nutrition and the way forward with that would be helped and disproven with you and your assimilated works. The points of reference reaching back that far is what topples all of these hearsays and fallacies always used by these wannabe quacks. I think you are doing what all of these social media giants try to do, actually pathing a way out of this mess. I could see you in a key position somewhere leading the charge, honestly. I love you, dude. Keep it up! Please.
@@PlantChompers Oh, no, I think you are. I've been through all of the online debates that went on for nearly decade now in this space and your explanations simply put the issues that always have arisen at bay. It's a nightmare to go through that as a lay person. This individual sorting and collecting of data points is what one has to do to formulate an answer, I believe, and no one does it as good as you seem to do it, to my current knowledge. May be a generational difference, for that you already have gone through what the 90's Kids currently are and or trying to go through, but this work you are doing is quite essential to actually make a dent into the well built deflective armor from those who want to keep things the way they were - Selling. Just because you don't do the science yourself you shouldn't underestimate the potential you have going on, this could flow into something bigger, if you'd want it to.
#1 rule. Make your own hummus 😉. - shop bought has only 1 chickpea in each tub, the rest is water, air, fat and salt. Get an instantpot pressure cooker and be happy.
@@tnijoo5109 We use a Instapot Duo 60 (5.7l). We are in the UK so models might differ elsewhere. The way I do chickpeas for humous: 1kg dry weight chickpeas in the pot and cover well with water (they will expand a lot) before going to bed. In the morning drain and refill with water to the max mark. Place the pot in the cooker. Optionally add a dash of any-old-vegetable oil (this is to reduce foaming). Close the lid and set it to pressure cook on high for 8-10 minutes. Let it cool naturally. (usually I just forget about it till I'm next in the kitchen at lunchtime). Drain well in colander (usually till tea time). You will have a mountain of chickpeas. Put some aside to use now. The others I put in a couple of large, reusable IKEA freezer bags, spread flat, in the freezer. After a few hours (next time I'm going in the freezer for something) I combine the frozen chickpeas into a single bag, breaking them up as I do it. If you just dump all the chickpeas in a single bag and freeze that you will end up with a solid mass that you can't break up. You can use exactly the same approach for any other of the larger dried beans, e.g. red kidney beans etc. Maybe less time for haricot. It effectively means you can have constant supply of pulses in the freezer. Hardly any work. Very healthy. Very environmentally friendly compared to buying canned beans. For the actual humous I just add crushed fresh garlic, big spoon of tahini, pinch of salt, dash of olive oil, lemon juice (usually from a bottle in the fridge) and wiz it up with a good quality hand blender. I went through a phase of not putting oil in but I think putting at least some olive oil helps the flavour a lot as it is a carrier for the other flavours. Add some water to get consistency right - shop bought has lots of water because they have very powerful blenders and can make a mouse out of it. Better to use a hand blender in a steep sided bowl than a food process as the food processor will keep jamming. If the family prefer the shop bought simply add more water, salt, oil and lemon to yours and wiz it up more! Sorry, long answer to a short question!
I'm grateful that when I went keto 10 years ago there wasn't much in the way of packaged "keto" food. I eat about 75% of my macros as fat and I find I have to add salt to keep my electrolytes in balance. Note, I eat zero highly-processed, hyper-palatable foods. The closest things to processed foods that I eat are apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, kimchi, sauerkraut, aged cheese, butter/ghee, EEVO, Avacado oil, Avacado oil mayonnaise, and similar. By eating a nutrient-dense animal-based Mediterranean keto diet focused on quality over quantity, I find no problem with a normal daily feeding window of 2-5 hours and no snacking. My daily meal is usually a large salad with sardines, salmon, cod liver, pasture-raised eggs, and/or 100% grass-fed beef/bison. The salad part is so that I can use a lot of EVOO, mayonnaise, and vinegar as the dressing. For the animals, I focus on those that lived and ate in a species-appropriate manner. If I had more time, I'd probably take up hunting wild ruminant game and fill my freezer with deer, bison, elk, and antelope as long as they lived far from corn or soybean fields. I think we're in about 90% concordance with respect to dietary advice. That 90% being, eat real food and not too much. I disagree with the mostly plants part, however. The restriction I place on carbohydrates means I can't do a plant-based keto, so I defaulted to animal-based. The carbs I eat tend to be the highest value for my limited carb budget. It is my belief that it is easier to not overeat when you are keeping carbs to
Thank you Chris or another amazing, informative, episode. I think of all the folks (and animals) out there suffering and wish your channel would go viral. Loved Tera- she is utterly charming and clearly brilliant!
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you.6 months ago I was on Keto for diabetes reasons and believed Nina et al. and all the rhetoric about how fat is good, low carb is the way, etc. So many nutritionists support keto for some reason where the doctors and scientists so often do not (in general). Out of all the 'noise' on the internet about diets for health, it was somehow your videos that got through to me (you'd think having to increase my hypertension meds after 3 months on keto would have been a wakeup call). I've been whole food, plant based since. It was your videos that were the gateway to a much healthier lifestyle. I'm not sure what it was that got through - only that your videos kept coming up in my feed of endless keto influencers and curiosity to see the counter argument kept me watching video after video that you put up.
@@PlantChompers I had no problem dropping weight with both those things in high amount. You could always argue that food that taste bad is less likely to be overeaten. But high fat and low carb combined with 1-2 meals a day will make it much harder to overeat. You can also look at what Julius Caesar wrote about Germanic tribes. Their diet were mostly flesh, milk and cheese. And he didn’t exactly describe them as obese. The obesity pandemic started in the 80s when we made people scared of natural food and they started to switch to highly processed low saturated fat foods. Since I don’t live in the US, my friends imported US candy one time. We had some good laughs at the packages. Candy marketed as “low fat snack” or “your natural source of vitamin c”
@@workhardplayharderx2 Love that you mention her, dr. Peter Rogers also names her often in his videos about metabolic theorie of cancer and the biochemistry of it all.
@@ghostviggen True, you have to avoid mixing fat and carbs, but it's amazing how little fat we actually need, especially when we eat enough fibre. SCFA's are produced by bacteria from these fibre and plants have all the good omega 3's we need. Walter Kempner did very well on a 7% fat diet with his rice diet and so does dr. J. mcDougall with around < 10% fat.
I struggled with being overweight all my adult life (I am 64) until I became whole-food plant based. I do not say vegan, because I try to avoid hyper-palatable, ultra-processed foods. I know that if I buy those, I will eat them first and the fresh fruit and veg will be left to rot until the junk has all been eaten. I haven’t touched animal products for over a year, and my weight is lower than ever and, for the first time in my adult life, my weight feels stable and easy to maintain.
Adversity makes us thin. Convenience and complacency make us fat. Prepared and processed food makes us fat because we can get it anywhere anytime. Sedentary work in urban areas make us fat. Welfare makes us fat. Less military obligation makes us fat. Less stigma around eating makes us fat. Computers make us fat. Exposure to cold indoors or outdoors make us thin. Exposure to heat indoors or outdoors make us thin. Less transportation makes us thin. Remember the oil crisis in the 70s? I lost weight from walking outside in winter up north and being at home with less heating.
Proud meat eater here. Just wanted to say you are doing a great job with these videos. As a science communicator of sorts, you do a really good job of making information, entertaining. And though I take a different perspective with my own diet, it is incredible how much we agree on much of the science.
Oh wow, you didn't know? Eating meat is apparently an extraordinary achievement for humans. No one else in history could have possibly done it. I mean, well done, mate. Truly groundbreaking stuff.
@@Psartz Name another species that butchers and cooks meat for food. I'll wait... Is it wrong to be proud to eat a healthy natural diet perfect for human consumption? And why are you all so insecure as to latch onto that one word in my entire post to comment on. Its a nothing burger. You could take it out of the post and it wouldn't materially change anything.
Don't trust anybody who tells you what's healthy or not. All nutrition experts are bought by different industries. Just try it yourself. You don't need anybody to tell you what to eat. If you don't feel good, change your diet until you feel good. It's simple.
I’ve put on a few pounds the last couple weeks, this video was so timely! I have made a few batches of pumpkin seed tofu, air fried with some seasoning (salt) it is really delicious. Sigh. Fat and salt. I love your videos, presentation is great and they are always so informative. Thanks for all your hard work!
People have stopped moving their bodies and are too sedentary. Major source of weight gain. On the rare occasions I watch football with my husband, it is amazing how many commercials run for absolute junk food meals. Commercial after commercial for hamburgers, fries, chicken wings, beer, milkshakes, all the fast food, etc. This is where the true obesity problem lies: in all of these fast foods.
Thanks for another great episode! Your work is wonderful! Very interesting to learn from the research of dr. Tera Fazzino that salt and oil make food so much more pallatable. Personally I love naturally sweet foods, such as carrots, fennel, sweet peas, and also fruits. I try to eat only plant foods, and I cook meals or buy foods that are low in SOS (sugar, oil, salt). A tip: the tastebuds for sour and salt are close to each other at your tongue; adding lemon juice and vinegar to a meal can replace some salt for a good flavour.
I think one of the major problems with salt is that it makes you overeat. (Case in point here in this video!) Try eating a bag of nuts without and with salt as a comparison and you will quickly understand. I swear, if you live on a whole food plant based diet with no added sugars, oils, and salts, then it is near impossible to gain weight. It seems like Plant Chompers also just discovered what I did not long ago about added salt. Thanks for sharing!
again, this is a brilliant video, thank you. I can't understand why your channel hasn't a lot more subscribers.I really appreciate your content, and I believe that tons of work go into each and every video.
Thank you. I dunno, a whole lot of nutrition channels are running circles around mine in terms of subscribers and views, getting millions of views for episodes that are much easier to produce. 🤷♂️
I think that is because he contructs good narrative, but it's not actually giving much for the public in terms of information if you stop to analyze the video.
@@PlantChompersHi Chris, IMO focus on the lives you are transforming, rather than viewer numbers. Your videos are like a art house documentary vs the popcorn blockbuster Hollywood movies e.g. carnivore videos.
This is a great expose of the food industry's evolution and truly hits the nail on the head. It's easy to dance around the truth of (hyper)palatability influencing over consumption with a focus on anti carb or anti fat rhetoric, but this is a refreshingly balanced take into what's occurred. It's a trade secret of good chefs.
At last! I have been trying to find the facts about food, obesity, nutritional requirements -at last I found your channel . Thank you so much for this. I’ve been vegan, vegetarian and now back to omnivore but confused by the keto and carnivore channels. I’m very grateful to you.
Tera's theories immediately resonated with me in the last episode, especially in the context of the study you were talking about. Didn't think to leave a comment though, your videos always have amazing insights.
Hello, Chris. My wife and I started down the WFPB path a few years ago and only recently discovered your channel. We truly enjoy your presentations (that's coming from a retired TV broadcaster) and love the information you and your good wife provide. Please keep it up! We'll be watching!
Hyper palate ability is addressed in the book THE PLEASURE TRAP. True North in Santa Rosa Calif has been speaking this for a very long time. But the more who discover this the better.
Yesss indeed I agree. I was listening to some Christopher Gardner from Stanford interviews and he mentions that the best diet is the one you can stick with… it makes sense now when you point out that each way of eating provides their share of hyper palatable foods… ahhh my beloved Whole grain corn tortillas chips , why must you taste sooo good but be soooo bad 😢
You make so much sense. Thank you for talking about all the 'data' that is used out there. My favorite way to eat is plant based, sos free... salt, oil, and sugar free, but I still slip into the more palatable, and a little bit processed foods. I gain weight playing around the edges. I love grocery shopping so have come to realize that this way of eating also takes away that fun little activity. Thanks for talking about Jack Lalanne. His wife, Elaine was on Chef AJs YT channel this week. I am an old girl, and watched him from the time he started on tv. Nice to hear more about him. Keep up the good work we need you out here.
This is so in line with my lived experience! I’m a long term vegan, workout like a lunatic, and avoid ultra processed foods like the plague. BUT, if I bake plain acorn squash, I can make it challenging to keep from overeating by pouring flax oil and salt over it.
I appreciate all your videos. The time, effort and thought is top tier. Im always hopeful the algorithm will start promoting you to a larger audience that matches the quality of the production and importance of messaging you have. Thank you so much for your fact based and easy to digest communication. I’m always envious of your skills and wish I had it in me to produce content even half as fun to watch as yours.
Always enjoy these videos, thank you for taking the time to make them! My husband will only get unsalted pretzels (I say my husband because after 3 mini Snyder's unsalted pretzels I get bored and stop eating). We rarely buy chips as we tried unsalted potato and tortilla chips and ended up throwing away half a bag of old uneaten chips. Unsalted peanut butter is another... I'll usually sprinkle a little Celtic salt on but find I reach for it less and don't end up wanting more. I work from home and this usually leaves me snacking on fruit much more. When we do occasionally indulge in hyper palatable foods like regular chips, fries, vegan fast food burgers, etc it doesn't sit well so it doesn't take much to satisfy a craving and after we usually just really want a big fresh crisp salad. Sugar though.... Need to be much more careful about what comes into the house.
I love this channel! You know how you'll save a new post to savor later? Not this one. I watch it immediately bc I know I'll watch it several times anyway. So much great content! Much respect from Indiana.
Hyper-palatability applies to so many foods these days it's quite insane, especially fast foods. Personally my exposure to such foods is non-existent, or rarely in regards to plant based alternatives, as i am mostly whole food plant based and i cook everything myself. As a result of such dietary pattern i've developed a certain revulsion towards foods that can be regarded as hyper-palatable., even as far as causing nausea. I'm no expert, so i'm not entirely sure why, but my best logical bet would be changes in gut microbiome and other factors. When a diet consists almost entirely of whole fruits, veg, greens, seeds, legumes...it's bound to have an effect on one's biochemistry. P.S. Great video, vegan/WFPB all the way :)
This is really interesting and thought provoking (especially for a fellow vegan whose weight has also crept up a bit). It’s definitely going to make me assess my food choices a bit more carefully. Anecdotally, I’ve never liked fat and sugar together. Donuts and ice cream are safe from me. But oh my… that bag of chips or crackers. It all makes sense now. 😅
I liked the part about you finding the pant tightening culprit. So many of us eat what we think are "healthy" snacks and then can't understand why we are still gaining weight on a mostly whole food, completely plant based diet.
I think this concept of food hyper-palatability is relevant to the question of obesity and health. My first concern with the presentation in this video is that it appears to be incomplete and a bit misdirected in its focus. I just looked at the published 2019 report by Dr. Fazzino and her research team. They identified 3 categories that dominated hyper-palatable foods. The category of Fats & Sodium which was the exclusive focus of this video had the second highest rate of impact in hyper-palatable foods at 25%. The category that had the highest rate of impact on hyper-palatability was Carbohydrates & Sodium at 40%. Yet, the impact of carbohydrates (predominantly vegetables, grains, and fruits) wasn't mentioned in the video at all. This oversight in mentioning Carbohydrates & Sodium may be because by 1988, that combination was already driving processed food consumption, while the impact of shifting processed foods from animal fats to vegetable fats was still in process after the first nutritional guidelines were issued in 1980. Although I am more of a middle-ground person who finds the rigid arguments from both the plant-based and meat-based proponents to be intellectually dishonest and biased, there isn't much in this video that I'd disagree with unless hyper-palatability is defined only in terms of fat and salt. The data shown at the 9:10 mark listing various food types and their increase in palatability is believable, except for the category of "Sweets". Considering how much more sugar consumption there is overall, and how many more things have some form of sugar contained in them, it is just not believable that the palatability factor of sweets has only increased 3-fold since 1988 and has actually gone down since 2001. Look at pre-packaged desserts and commercial baked goods. The palatability factor on those is probably due in part to fats in the form of vegetable oils. However, it is also likely due to increased sweetness with multiple forms of sugars or sugar substitutes being used. So the combination for these foods is fat plus sugar, although perhaps a small bit due to sodium considering that salt enhances sweetness. I suspect that baked goods are placed in the Grains category, rather than the Sweets category. What this research report clearly shows more than anything is that the dietary guidelines that have been established in many countries are largely the cause of obesity, rather than contributing to health, well-being, and weight control. For the last 40 years, US dietary guidelines have given preference to grains and vegetable oils. The issue around vegetable oils is glossed over in the video. There is a big focus on animal fats, almost exclusively from beef. No disagreement from me that cattle are increasingly bred to be fat-striated. But all other animals raised for food have gone the other way. The focus is on lean pork, lean poultry, lean everything except beef. Yet, the palatability of the Fats category has increased 24-fold from 1988 to 2018. That increase, both in palatability and in the amount consumed, seems to me to be largely based on plant-based fats. The exclusive focus on fat from beef is an example of the disingenuous bias I see in committed proponents of a specific type of diet. The data table is missing one very important category when it displays on my computer - vegetables. I suspect that vegetable palatability has had zero increase. Perhaps, as agriculture has focused on developing vegetables that can survive mechanical harvesting and for their ability to not go bad during lengthy transport periods rather than for taste, perhaps vegetable palatability has actually decreased over the last 30 years. One thing that bothered me during the video was the presenter's habit of commenting on the palatability of certain foods and the problem of ultra-processed foods as though those were separate issues. They are not. They are the same issue. Food processors deliberately and consciously manipulate the ingredient mix and production methods to increase the palatability of the foods. The increased palatability of food in the categories of Dairy, Fats, Grains, and Meats is very likely the result of ultra-processing techniques in addition to whatever changes were made in the fat, sodium, and sugar content of the foods.
Thank you for talking about how even "healthy" vegan options can be hyper-palatable and lead to overeating/weight gain. I think if you are a really great vegan cook and know how to use herbs and spices, even dishes that fall below the fat and sodium thresholds can be over eaten as they can be so delicious to tastebuds adapted to recognize the natural tastiness of those ingredients. I am sadly realizing if I really want to get off my weight loss plateau I need to make my food as bland and boring as possible. Is it sustainable long term where tasty food is one of life's simple pleasures? Maybe not, but can't hurt to try to make at least one meal a day super boring. That seems to be the winning recipe for many. Thank you for another one of your engaging videos.
@@MarkSheeres my problem, and i suspect yours too maybe, is i love novelty and every meal is different and exciting ...Thai, indian, Mexican, japanese, Spanish, Italian and on and on. All within WFPB no SOS guidelines. If i just changed dinner to potato and broccoli or zucchini seven nights a week I bet i would loose again.
@@Mimulus2717 Indeed. There’s no shortage of great food, and while some people may have trouble getting enough calories that’s never been my problem! To be fair I do use a little olive oil and a little sugar here and there, but I’m extremely sparing in those things. Well, I’m going to try one boring meal a day and see where that leads.
@@MarkSheeres so true, maybe doing one boring meal a day or even skipping a meal with gratitude we have food where many go hungry is important. I wish you luck, I'm starting this today myself.
You don’t need to worry about the food be boring. You’ll honestly be surprised how enjoyable foods like plain brown rice and beans with steamed veggies can actually be. It’s all about getting your tastebuds adjusted.
I remember years ago when FDA was proposing their new food labels and invited comments. I strongly disagreed in them removing the percentage of calories from fat on the food label, as if somehow now fat was no longer relevant at a time when American obesity rates were the highest in history. I guess another fine example of powerful food industry influence, and we in the public had zero input.
This was a superbly compelling video. I am constantly amazed by the myriads of food gurus, influencers, and shameless shills who have turned up over the last many decades. Aside from religion there can't be a topic with more diversity/ conflict of opinion and advice. Confusion reigns supreme. Tera Fazzino appears to be a delight as well as a no BS scientist. So you're getting a new subscriber. Two thumbs up.
I found your channel a couple of weeks ago. I love trying to follow the science and I'm a bit tired of hearing that "grass feed meat" is the answer to healthy eating. Thanks for the research and keep up the good work.
Wow, I didn't know that Lustig put on so much weight. I don't consider scientist's personal appearances or preferences a good evidence in any serious discussion, but man. Appearances still play a big role in persuasion, and it doesn't look good for him or his cause) Either he's following his own advise and it doesn't work. or he's not following it and looks kind of like a hypocrite. Anyway, Chris, always a pleasure to watch your videos, thank you for finding Tera and her study, I'll definatly check it out. It reminds me of a study that Stephan Guyenet referenced in his book, where they fed a completly bland food mixture in controlled enviroment, and all obese participants drastically lost excess weight having no problems with hanger, while healthy ones maintained their normal weight. Which shows the power of palatability and taste in driving our eating behavior. You are one of the few authors whom I don't forget to like. We need to make you more popular!
Thank you for this and for introducing Tera Fazzino! I will now look at "hyperpalatable foods" with a new light. That makes so much sense. And takes into account all of the data points, not just the ones that are convenient. It did take about a year for my taste buds and palate to change after greatly reducing my sodium intake. And even now, when eating out, I can be overwhelmed with how salty the vegan options are at restaurants.
Excellent content as always! I am currently working on a literature review in my Nutritional Sciences Masters program, on plant-based diets and healthspan. Your videos usually give me a few new studies to look up and read, for this paper and other projects 🤓💚 Thank you!!
It explains why most adults' favourite meal is salty: burgers, fatty pizza, dishes with heavy sauces. People go for the fatty toppings more than the savoury ones (say salami instead of capers on pizza).
Hey Chris, just wanted to say I've done low carb/paleo/keto few years and now for a month I'm doing full carnivore. Still, I like your videos because I like very intelligent sarcastic but polite and humorous people. In general you tend to be balanced, but from time to time because of your own choice of going vegan, you don't see the skew in the data you show. I can't do a discussion here in text, too much to type, but still I do wanted to say thanks for doing your videos, it does come thru that you put a lot of work into them and it is appreciated.
Video idea: make an episode on how the USDA and food corporations “prove” that a new chemical they’re adding to our food is GRAS. (generally recognized as safe). Relatedly, I’d love to see you dive into a few of the preservatives or additives or emulsifiers, and what they seem to be doing to us. Came back here for a second viewing today after reading Ultra-Processed Food, and I just think it would be fascinating to see you dig into it from that angle.
i've been 'lettings things go' and not looking too closely at what I've been eating either. it's funny how the fat and salts have crept back into my diet..and why i've added a little extra weight also. thanks for the reminder and the amazing insight here! time to get back to more whole plant foods.
Excellent as usual Mr. Chomper. Chicken is even worse for this. Chicken's consumed more in the west. I've had the experience of eating non fast grow chickens in Serbia. Before going plant based I used to be a huge chicken addict - but the non fast grow stuff just didn't taste right. When I started ordering organic/freerange chicken the farmers did warn that they had to grow fast grow chickens because the market didn't like regular chickens. Fast grows are so much fattier and tastier. I've also had the opportunity to taste deer and game meat on safari. I have to say I much prefer Tofu and beans over gamey meat. Meat isn't inherently more tasty than plants - just the hyper palatable variety.
So the increase in marbling of meat is due to animals fed on grain rather than pasture raised as was our practice for thousands of years. Having promoted this low fat and low sodium diet since the 1970’s we have had an explosion of obesity, T2 diabetes, AMD, renal disease, and CHD. It’s the sugar, flour and rancid oils in our standard American diet that we have been programmed to think is healthy at the root of the problem.
Another great video Chris! And yes, I am one of the viewers who saw the last video and didn’t quite catch “fat+salt=hyper-palatable”. QUESTION/SUGGESTION FOR A VIDEO. I have read in MANY places that our modern ratio of Omega 6: Omega 3 fatty acids is out of balance. This is typically accompanied by the statement that “paleo peoples consumed these in a Omega 6:Omega 3 ratio of 2:1 or even 1:1” Where does that statement come from? Looking at the sources of Omega 6 (many) and Omega 3 (just certain fish, flax seed and chia seed), it is really difficult for me to believe that ancient humans had a 2:1 ratio of Omega 6: Omega 3 in their diet unless they lived along a coastline.
If I recall correctly it's that low omega6 : omega3 ratios are correlated with better cardiovascular outcomes. How much value should you derive from that? I'm not so sure. The nutritional guidelines I've read don't discuss it directly. They do recommend meeting your daily intake of omega-3s (including EPA and DHA, like from algae or fish), so I'd rather focus on that.
It's pretty obvious fats are not hyper-palatable without the addition of salt or sugar or both. Single fats on their own are relatively tasteless. But they are hyper-caloric, and that allows eating smaller amounts of food in a meal, another reason to call these meals "fast", gulping down 1000 cals in minutes. How long does it take to eat 1000 cals of only whole fruits and veggies? Convenience is killing us. As "The Pleasure Trap" (book) points out our basic instincts are avoid pain, seek pleasure, and conserve energy. Without responsible government we are very easy to take advantage of. It's all about the GDP baby.
Great video. Love all your content Chris. My opinion is that we humans are prone to overconsume anything that efficiently buffers us against starvation and dehydration, because the ancient calculation that remains in our genes (but maybe not everyone's) is that being fat with vascular disease is not a problem. It usually takes years for those things to ruin us and we've most likely already reproduced by then. Dehydration will mess you up in a day in some cases, and if you aren't starting out chunky you're not really functional past 2 weeks without food. The frustrating thing is how freely food and drink companies are allowed to exploit these tendencies of ours, knowingly killing people in slow motion.
Hyper palatable fat foods get quickly gobbled up. Note the French are more likely to savour foods and eat slowly. Suggests to me - we get full by munching slowly on things - the more we munch and chew - the more we end up feeling full. Even if it is a carrot. Addictive food with salt is also likely to be harder to resist, especially if we are not full from eating it!
I love that you have the links to the articles in your description. And Tera is such a vibrant person who is so genuinely excited by her findings. I knew that hyper-palatability has increased over time with additives - this is the first I'm making the connection between artificial selection pressure and hyper -palatability. The marbled beef example was terrific! The connection blew my mind and then I realized that farmers have been doing this for centuries - making food "sexier" so we'll actually want to eat it. This is another great piece of evidence that ties into your other videos that shows our brains haven't caught up with our food surplus reality. I always learn something new on your channel - which makes it my favorite one on here!
I think it might have been a good idea to have mentioned the other two HPF clusters from the study - for the sake of completeness. Great video though, your content is always thought provoking and compelling.
In case people are wondering, the two other hyper palatable food categories, in addition to Fat-Salt, are Fat-Simpe Sugar, and Carb-Salt. Reading the papers defines them and their relative impact more clearly, that's just the short hand used for the discussion.
I don't know why they were shocked by this finding. If you walk into the Cheesecake Factory, Appebees, Chili's or any American restaurant for dinner, a bowl of sugar never appears as an appetizer or entree. Many deep fried foods like wings, mozzarella marinara, calamari, jalapeno poppers, egg rolls and nachos do appear. Sure, the sauces may have some sugar in them but most people are seeking savory, dense foods for appetizers and main dishes. It is also difficult to sell lots of beer (their biggest profit) to complement foods like apple pie and brownies. And the reality is most people are too bloated and stuffed from the greasy food and beer to order dessert.
Very interesting. So amazing that despite having this basic knowledge regarding fat since 1950 and today in 2023 we have adults who intentionally eat loads of meat.
This explains why I cannot keep Trader Joe's blue corn chips in the house. I used to think it was probably because I had some nutritional deficiency that was being satisfied by eating blue corn. Yeah right. I switched to a WFPB no SOS diet a year ago because my A1C had crept up to 5.8. I am 25 lbs lighter now, down to 120, 5' 3.5," only a couple of pounds more than what I weighed when I got married 42 years ago, A1C normal now and total cholesterol is 132. My husband and I babysit our 22 month-old grandson once a week at his home. Our son and his wife have blue corn chips and popcorn with fat and salt around. It takes a lot of work not to be lured by the siren Call, that's for sure. But I'm not going to put those pounds back on!
I really enjoy your shows. They are informative and well delivered. In my wildest imagination, I would not have believed that animals were being bread to make the hyperpalatable. What an eye-opener. So glad I gave up animal based foods 7 years ago.
That was a big shock to me too. I spoke to many people, like Michael Moss, author of Salt, Fat, Sugar about it and no one seemed to know. Just food scientists, who don't want to speak on the record.
Animals have changed a lot less than most fruits and vegetables have.. for animals it's mostly the food they're given. Cows are naturally pretty fatty animals. You don't see very fatty goats or sheep.
@@mikafoxx2717Chickens have been selectively bred to lay over 300 eggs per annum, vs originally less than a dozen. Broiler chickens have been selectively bred to reach full majority and triple the weight in three months. Look at the grotesque udder size of a modern dairy cow. Modern farm animals are commodities bred for maximum productivity.
Jack LaLanne ate animal products.. and his long life can certainly be attributed to his exercise routine.. just like Attia shows in his book.. that exercise is massively powerful.
I put on 12kg vegan. Turns out 3kg of that was fluid and inflammation as it dropped off in a month of a change of diet. I never had a feeling of being satiated as a vegan.
Portion size is a key for me. At 70 years of age I look back on what was considered appropriate portion sizes for meals when I was young compared to today. My father was an electrical lineman, a physically challenging job working outside. Two eggs and two strips of bacon with one piece of toast was his daily breakfast. He maybe had an apple, banana, or similar for snack and two lunchmeat sandwiches with a fruit cocktail type side for lunch. Then he had dinner at five o'clock each evening. We NEVER ate evening snacks. Three meals a day and maybe a snack in the afternoon, and that was it. The portions then were small, almost tiny compared to now. It has taken me a long time to get accustomed again to seeing a downsized meal and being satisfied with that. If we go out for a meal, my spouse and I usually share a meal. And yes, that hyper-palatable thing wants to push us to overeating, which is really what produces obesity and the maladies which come with that. The super Caloric dense over processed foods also contribute, as does added sugars. It is a complex web which is hard to overcome. Eating as much whole foods is key to satiety and maintaining weight at a good BMI. I am not sure just how good intermittent fasting is for anything. But I do know that limiting myself to a window for eating and only having three meals with one snack has helped discipline myself against that constant "grazing" on foods from the pantry. I also use a Calorie counting app, just so I can keep on track in a ballpark manner, just how much food I am eating. That seems to work better than counting portions of veggies, fruits, etc. I do seem to fall short on eating whole grains, though I do eat a portion of steel-cut oats five days a week. Maybe once a week I have some sort of rice millet noodles, but that's all. I eat a few tortillas a week as well. All this while trying to utilize the Mediterranean diet guidelines.
I think portion size is a big problem for many of us. We don't feel satisfied if we aren't eating large amounts. Now, how to decrease our ideas of appropriate doses?
Kudos! I agree on all your comments. I'm also 70, and 12 years following Dr McDougall, dropped 120 pounds and kept it off. I enjoy Cardio and Weights 7 days a week. I don't count calories either but try to do a very wide variety of Veg and Fruits. I don't bother with that intermittent fast stuff either. Keep doing what you're doing. BTW, there's some real good Cajun seasonings out there like one called Slap Ya Mama which are chock full of flavor but not all that hot you can try. I'm a fan!
I think a lot of your viewers have science backgrounds. I'm a retired high school science teacher. A decade ago, I lost 75 lbs (235-->160 @5'10") and kept it off doing four things together. 1. Setting daily weight goals, 2. Eliminating processed carbs, 3. Getting enough exercise each day to drain the glycogen reserves, 4. I ate lots and lots of soluble and insoluble fibre. Following those rules, I tried lots of ideas like Keto and OMAD. As they say, "Everything works, but nothing works forever." I've even tried the Lumen. That was interesting; I learned how protein in larger amounts seems to have the same effect as a processed carb. I quit it, though. Too many observations didn't fit the model, and they couldn't provide evidence for the model. One thing I know from weighing myself every day for ten years and reflecting on the previous day's eating is that these "hyper-palatable" foods and processed carbs leave you feeling hungry soon after eating them. I find salt self-limiting, but processed carbs (such as sugar) not so much. Anyway, I love your show despite not being vegetarian. I've liked and subscribed. An investigation I'd find interesting is how foods can be rated for how many calories must be consumed before becoming satiated. Our purpose for eating is, in large part, to satiate our appetite. This should be quantifiable. I know some sites have fullness factors, but I can't make sense of them because they don't connect fullness to caloric intake. Anyway, sorry for rambling a bit. Keep making these.
Another great episode. Can you discuss the conversation presented by Dr. Barnard about casopmorphins in cheese. I was vegetarian for 25 years before I could renounce my cheese addiction. After 2 years vegan (at 48), I feel amazing…. And lucky… to be well on the way to healing decades of dietary trauma.
He does make a compelling argument... I haven't dug into the data or chemistry, so I'm not confident enough to say, but he has always struck me as very reliable.
Yes sugar squirrel goes right next to "soy is bad for you" squirrel, plant antinutrients squirrel, and "where do you get your protein" squirrel. Thanks Chris 🥦🍎
Important clip for understanding the probable causes of obesity and....what foods to avoid when trying to avoid hyper-palatability and obesity and serious health problems. Mr. Phillips Canada Retired "moving towards Vegan"
Mary’s Gone Crackers! I was addicted to them - fascinating to hear their evolution. Dr. Doug Lisle has talked about how we humans like CRUNCHY food because in the Stone Age, food that was crunchy was fresh. I think that’s a big part of why I liked Mary’s Crackers too. Sooo crunchy. Thanks for another brilliant, thought-provoking, and entertaining video! This is my kinda TV 🍿
Please run your magic on the subject(s) of: Calcium and osteoporosis. Bone health. There's so much to cover. From how much calcium is enough, through to is calcium from plants inferior as we're made to believe? What about supplementation and for how long before it becomes an issue? How can we generate enough fibroblasts, because calcium isn't going to cover it! Women in particular struggle with this and I struggle to get enough calcium into my diet as a smaller sized person who eats a lot of leafy greens (!) but has a stomach that isn't too keen on many beans (even if I do love them!). Supplementation is a concern. So what to do? You've got such a wonderful way about you, thank you so much for all your work and sharing your knowledge.
As an exMormon, that was pretty interesting hearing a quote from Brigham Young sprinkled in! 😂 My mormon relatives are all very big on eating beef and meat of all kinds, and make sure you wash it down with lots of milk! Really loved the information and I’ll share some of it with my husband who eats my homemade vegan meals but still indulges in a lot of hyper-palatable foods. I’ve tried to explain to him how I’ve been able to cure my addiction to them by eliminating them altogether but I know it’s harder for him because he travels a lot for work.
Ex Bishop here. 😁 I still have family in the church and many friends, so I go from time to time, but that's how I knew about that quote. The church has distanced itself from its mostly plant-based origins, unlike the Adventists.
@@PlantChompers yes, didn’t the Word of Wisdom say to use the flesh of beasts and fowls of the air sparingly?? They’ve gone a long way from that, if they ever embraced that part much. Interesting to think about. Again, really great and informative video! My husband watched part of it with me and was very intrigued. We want to give our kids a good chance against these so-called “foods” but it will be tricky given the addictive nature and widespread availability! 😞
I was "raised" Catholic and haven't had much interaction with Mormons. I was under the impression that most of them are expected to avoid things known to be harmful to our bodies. I think once someone told me the really strict members don't even believe in consuming caffeine. I think many people have a negative opinion of them because of the practice of approaching others and trying to convert them similar to the Jehovah's witnesses. Most people don't appreciate strangers coming to their door uninvited etc. I don't even remember what age I was when I first learned about how some Christian groups are anti-Catholic. I was born in New York City, then lived in New Jersey and have now been in Ohio since 1979. Thee end, good luck
I truly wish people in the US would rediscover the difference between hyper-palatable foods and delicious foods. I made a lovely shepherd's pie last night with venison (and lots of lovely veggies in there too.) It was delicious but I didn't compulsively inhale 10 servings of it.
Chris, as to why food manufactures want to keep saturated fat in their foods - you may have overlooked this simple reason: saturated fats are typically solid at room temperatures.
Chris, this is another great video and you just keep looking younger! Awesome results from the study by Tera, but watching this interview I couldn't stop thinking how in the age of social media and visual content supremacy, the scientist can be seen as less credible based on their looks. You know, the same reason why you'll put an actor in doctor's outfit for a toothpaste commercial. Plus, you were talking about a serious matter and she kept bursting out in laughter at times. It's gotta be her true self, on the other hand. What I'm trying to say that I would send her paper around for impact but not necessarily her video interventions.
