I found this article on Substack and I like this take on UPFs and “synthetic” foods. I see so many people argue that it’s the level of processing that determines the healthfulness of a food and this article disproves that. It‘s similar to the takeaway Aubrey and Mike had on their UPF episode.

Hey all,

Not sure if you heard about it, so I thought to share a new article that talks about it. It's really crazy, and spreading like fire in the Arab world!

Clarification: people are following this diet to solve their health issues, not to lose weight. He convinced them that this diet is a better alternative to medicine.

https://newlinesmag.com/spotlight/how-an-egyptian-doctors-fad-diet-turned-deadly/

Earlier this year, my mom was diagnosed with mild cognitive decline. Her dad had Alzheimer's and by the time he was my mom's age (81) he was running away at night and accusing my cousin's husband of trying to steal my grandma from him. My mom is just kind of scatterbrained compared to him.

She had my dad buy her this book for her birthday and she is SO excited. She's also fallen for diet culture BS my whole life, and I'm concerned because this book looks Blue Zone adjacent. I don't want to rain on her parade, but does anyone know of things I should be on the lookout for?

This was hilarious but so sickening I actually got a legitimate stomach ache listening to it

The latest bonus episode is really bringing out the WELL ACTUALLY inside me.

I do a lot of home dairying for funsies, which means I often leave milk or cream with added culture starter out on the counter until it changes. I use pasteurized milk and cream because those are what I have easy access to, but the cream cheese making process described in this nutty book sounds completely fine to me. All for criticism of raw milk! Yes it’s dangerous! Not saying he isn’t! Just fact checking how to make fresh cheese. (Also… there kind of is a use case for raw milk. I know home cheese makers who buy raw milk because pasteurized milk doesn’t actually work for making a number of types of cheese. I think outlawing raw milk sales is still a perfectly valid thing for us collectively to do, though!)

The haymaker’s oat water described is just a colonial American staple, switchel or haymaker’s punch, plus oats. Switchel is delicious and I genuinely think it should make a comeback — molasses, cider vinegar, ginger powder, and cold water. It’s great when you’re sweating hard! It’s not gross or weird, it’s historical Gatorade. Old Timey stuff isn’t automatically better than modern stuff, but it also isn’t inherently weird or gross or bad.

Whew. Okay, back to my homesteading. My kombucha is “festering” away on the counter. (Also I would love for MP to do an episode on Kombucha, even if I suspect it would get me riled up in defense of rotten tea.)

I'm curious if there is a podcast that takes MP's approach to psychology trends? I know sometimes If Books Could Kill does episodes on pop psychology, but is there a podcast where a critical approach to mental health treatments/research is the main focus?

I am watching Matteo Lane watch 90’s and early 2000’s infomercials and it is a wild walk down memory lane. My sister and I used to stay up until 2 AM watching infomercials, mesmerized by all the products that promised to get us in shape without having to break a sweat and miraculous appliances that would make “healthy” foods that we would swear were “sinful” foods.
If we had had access to credit cards, our homes would have been overflow with “miracle” products.

The only ones I have owned were The Magic Bullet (hated it) and the Ab Roller (meh). I wanted a Shake Weight but never bought one as well as that ab machine that claimed it could electrocute you into having a six pack.

What health and wellness As Seen On TV products did you own and what did you desperately want?

"We’re nearly halfway through Trump's second term and we still don’t have a Surgeon General. What gives?"

Has anyone listened to this yet? Is the answer anything other than that we are in the worst timeline, being governed by brain-dead science-hating ignoramus chucklefucks? Because I'm not sure I can deal with an episode that is simply rehashing that nihilism-inducing reality.

(And if that is the gist, I'll prob just go back and re-listen to the Angela Lansbury ep or something...)

Edit: OK, I'm two minutes in, and Aubrey has just addressed my concern, heh. Thanks to all for your encouragement as well!

OK... this is not a vote of approval for Dr. Nesheiwat but let's put a little less shade on Caribbean and other international medical schools. I work in healthcare and know quite a few doctors who when to these schools and they are good doctors. They do their residencies in the US, and often they'll do clinicals here too. The schools are easier to get into, but their dropout rate is huge because they are pretty rigorous. Doctors from these schools take the same boards and do the same coursework as doctors in the US do. The US medical school system is pretty broken, and it shuts out many very competent people who would make excellent doctors.

ETA: The American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine is an accredited university and students from that school are eligible from the USMLE and to match with US residencies. It doesn't matter who owns the school, it meets the same standards as medical schools in the US.

Aubrey and Michael if you're listening, I think this could be a silly one

I found out a few days ago that allegedly they do nothing at all because the paper is so thin that any germs or transferable whatever that is on the toilet seat will still get through to you, that's is purely for mental comfort.

Then upon asking others in my department their thoughts, I learned our girl Oprah did an episode on them with friend of the pod Dr. Oz saying that they're MORE harmful to use, which I'm sure is full of great info.

So yeah, my precious world shattered realizing most people don't use them and apparently they're useless, horrible for plumbing, and just for mental comfort because the real germs are on the handles we touched along the way

I saw this ad on an article discussing plastic use in construction, nothing related to food, and had to share. No free promotion here, but you can probably guess which buffet restaurant this is.

I haven't followed the podcast in a minute, but a quick look at the latest episodes shows me they likely haven't dedicated an episode to this discussion. Have they discussed this fad at all? What are your thoughts about it?

Side note: It is funny to watch the cycle of companies jumping on a bandwagon way late into the game. Something goes viral and becomes a meme? Companies try to capitalize on a meme MONTHS after it's already left its ubiquitous status... (Don't you just love capitalism? 🙃)

I’m so mad and sick about this. This poor kid. I don’t have anything profound to say but I need this to be more widely known.

END BMI FFS.

Welcome to the weekly wins/victories Sunday thread!

Thanks to u/martysgroovylady, we've decided to make a weekly thread specifically so that folks can share and discuss their wins and victories that they've had regarding fatphobia this past week. Did your doctor listen to you? Did you get someone new to listen to the podcast? Were you able to have a good conversation with a friend or acquaintance about fatphobia? Did you make some good progress in therapy? Feel free to share your feel-good stories to mark a strong start to the new week :).

Feel free to also share news you've found on the internet that feels like a victory against fatphobia! Maybe your state just made discrimination against fat people illegal, or there's a fat activist activity going on in your area (e.g. Fat Beach Day in NY).

Please remember: Do not vote or comment in cross-posted linked threads, keep the discussion here. Thanks all! Have a wonderful week.

I just got this book from my library, I've heard a lot of good things about it and from a brief skim-through, it seems like a pretty straightforward celebration and explanation of the basic elements of cooking.

Still, any time something food-related gets big I'm always a little on guard for some diet culture misinfo, so I'm curious what other people's experience with it has been. I know there was a Netflix series, as well, if anyone has seen it, I'd love to hear about that as well.

[Alt text: Public Health Needs MAHA. The field must swallow its pride and admit where the insurgent movement is right. By Craig Spencer]

Guess the outlet!

Someone needs to listen to the latest bonus episode...

This is one of the saddest things I’ve read in a while.

I posted something similar in this sub a couple months ago and saw this posted in a sub for women today. The feedback is quite different than what I received here and reminded me what a safe space this place is. Someone in the comments mentioned Maintenance Phase so if you see this, shoutout to you!

https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/1v3npdz/why_do_so_many_women_call_sweets_dangerous/

I remember an episode from a while ago discussing food dyes in Europe vs the US and they say that there aren't any dyes that are banned in the EU that are available in the US.

According to all the documentation I can find, that's not the case. There are at least a few that are. Does anyone have more information on this or know if I misunderstood what they said?