22: My Love/Hate Relationship with Nutrition

I love nutrition but I hate the way it is practiced.  In my opinion, there's academic nutrition based upon science, facts, figures, and knowledge and then there's the business of nutrition based upon sales, marketing, and persuasion.I just can't figure out how to compete in the business of nutrition, or rather, I just can't bring myself to do it.In health & wellness, nutrition knowledge, realistic expectations, and context seem to be optional.  Instead, testimonials, best case scenarios, a total lack of quantification, false optimism, wishful thinking, and low effort, high reward programs seem pretty standard.What I want more than anything is for nutrition claims to actually represent the data and the evidence and for them to be put into the context of life.  I know this isn't the way it works and there are far too many moneyed interests for it to work this way.  But this is the way that I operate, and this is what you can expect from me.  Honest, contextual assessments, and advice.We're a little too good at telling people what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.Some of the topics in today's podcast include:I love nutrition but not practicing it (1:10)The two books that first changed how I view obesity and weight loss (2:05)The parts of nutrition that I really hate: marketing, sales, and persuasion (3:05)Weight loss is high effort, moderate reward, not low effort, high reward (4:11)Nutrition education is as futile as trying to convert a Trump supporter (6:09)Fast food, diet coke, and full-blown hatred = immortality (7:31)Nutrition is ultimately a selfish pursuit (8:41)The battle between helping people or fighting misinformation (10:24)Changing the culture of health & wellness and your relationship with it (12:08)Nutrition knowledge has little effect on day-to-day food decision making (14:06)Metabolic carts are for fun, entertainment, and education but not real life (16:22)The lack of willpower is a myth (17:20)The appearance of “trying” to lose weight (22:23)Body dissatisfaction is a great predictor of weight loss success (23:13)Being ignored/not mattering is soul crushing (25:28)There’s no place in nutrition for me (29:57)Our models for practicing nutrition kind of suck (35:17)What I really want more than anything (38:03)Academia is the only place for weight loss science (38:55)Nutrition undergrads aren’t properly prepared for the real world (38:55)$100,000+ and two decades of training, only to be blacklisted (41:14)It’s hard to love something that doesn’t love you back (41:50)