Nutrition and Podcasting

By Patrick James

Podcasting has become the new normal for talk radio on your phone. Looking back on my twelve years as a radio personality, I never thought that podcasts would take off like they have. And I was wrong. You can find podcasts that can entertain or educate you, or both. Podcasts can have all sorts of genres. There’s political, science, sports, music talk, you name it. Some of my personal favorites are: “Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show,” “the Bob & Tom Show Podcast,” “The Bertcast with Bert Kreischer,” “Iron Game Chalk Talk with Ron McKeefery,” and “Nike: Trained.” Yea, I like comedy.

So where does nutrition information fall into the world of Podcasts? We are a profession about evidence-based science. Are there podcasts for the masses that strive to present accurate information on nutrition? How can we tell which podcasts are relevant and which are just using buzzwords to grab attention? Hopefully today I can shed some light on the subject.

I started with a basic search on my iPhone. Using the search bar, I typed “nutrition” and found these as the top four recommendations: Ben Greenfield Fitness, The Fat-Burning Man, The Nutrition Diva’s Quick and Dirty Tips, & The Keto Answers Podcast w/Dr. Anthony Gustin. I have no idea who any of these hosts are, so let’s do a little digging together.

Ben Greenfield Fitness (approximately 1h – 1h30m episode length)

Podcast Summary: “Free fitness, nutrition, biohacking, fat loss, anti-aging, and cutting-edge health advice from BenGreenfieldFitness.com! Tune in to the latest research, interviews with exercise, diet and medical professionals, and an entertaining mash-up of ancestral wisdom and modern science, along with Q&A’s and mind-body-spirit with optimizing content from America’s top personal trainer.”

First Impression/Background Check: Personal trainer giving nutrition advice kinda scares me. Also, what is biohacking? What makes him “America’s best personal trainer”? He is a NSCA-certified personal trainer-turned-CEO/nutrition guru. He has written several books and his weekly podcast is pretty popular covering different topics. There is one where he appears to debunk the popularity of the Keto diet, so I’m a little intrigued.

Episode at a Listen: In the episode titled, “How to Test Nutritional Status & How to Know Which Supplements to Take: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet,” Ben, along with Dr. Chris Masterjohn (PhD in Nutritional Science) discuss the Nutrition Cheat Sheet Masterjohn created. They talked about the importance of supplementation “If you’re health conscious, you need supplements.” They go on to discuss how the Western diet and how that fruits and vegetables don’t have as many nutrients as before. Their discussion moves on to the topic of deficiencies and how you can test for these and who (name drop), the best lab to get those results, which could cost $900.

Final Thoughts: The show is full of sponsor advertisements and name drops of companies Ben has worked with and for. There’s not a lot of actual nutritional information that one can’t find from their own search with Dr. Google. Masterjohn’s cheat sheet isn’t that expensive ($30), but only gives blanket information on deficiencies and toxicities for various nutrients. I don’t agree with his statement about needing supplements and some of the recommendations they were making rubbed me the wrong way. When they mentioned Vit-D deficiencies, I think it was Greenfield that mentioned supplementing with 25-50,000 IU every day. According to my Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism textbook, toxicity levels top out at 10,000 IU per day.

Bottom line, he does make some good points, but this podcast is for the ultra-athlete/fitness competitor/gym rat with a lot of money to spend. Would not recommend this for someone who is looking for basic nutrition advice or guidance.

The Fat-Burning Man (45m – 1h30m episode length)

Podcast Summary: “Want to drop fat by eating ridiculously well and exercising less? Whether you’re Paleo, Keto, Vegan, Wild, or completely clueless, we’re here to help you eat right, train smarter, and transform your body and mind to be your absolute best. This family-friendly show is free of outside advertising for your listening pleasure. Winner of 4 awards and #1 in Health in 8+ countries. Yes, you really be happy and healthy at the same time. Take it from the Fat-Burning Man, burning fat can be a lot of fun. :) For more visit: FatBurningMan.com”

First Impression/Background Check: Host Abel James is a singer/songwriter who felt like the advice his doctors were giving him wasn’t helping improve his health. So, according to his website, he did the opposite of what they told him about heart healthy diet and lost “20 pounds in 40 days.” He has no professional education in nutrition or dietetics and does not appear to be certified within any organizations.

Episode at a Listen: Abel James starts every episode with answering some fan mail. James talked with Dr. Jon Berardi about the subject of intermittent fasting and how it can help. They discussed different aspects of intermittent fasting, like one big meal a day or small meals every couple of hours. James seems to be very conversational and wants to find answers to questions about nutrition and fitness. Berardi claims to be his own guinea pig, testing different diets or exercise programs that come out. They also mention that it isn’t just about the timeframe of when you eat, but also what you eat. They bring up caution about losing too much weight and different problems (like how extreme weight loss can affect the female reproductive system) and that people should listen to what their bodies are telling them. They also mention a few times that that intermittent fasting isn’t for everyone, which I think is really good. They’re not trying to push their thoughts at the “only way to perfection.”

Final Thoughts: The show has some sponsor mentions throughout, but not as much as Greenfield’s podcast. I think this could be a good podcast for information seekers. As I believe within anything, the host isn’t an RD, so I feel like some of the information is based on anecdotal evidence and not entirely based on evidence-based science. But James brings his episodes with curiosity and how the topics can be applied to others.

Bottom line, this might be a podcast I could recommend, but I would caution my recommendation. He’s got great ideas, but needs more backing to his information.

The Nutrition Diva’s Quick and Dirty Tips (10m – 25m episode length)

Podcast Summary: “Nutrition Diva Monica Reinagel serves up simple, painless ways to upgrade your eating habits. Before you know it, you’ll be eating healthier and feeling more fabulous!”

First Impression/Background: Monica Reinagel is a licensed dietitian/nutritionist based out of Maryland who has over 500 podcasts covering different topics from intermittent fasting to HDL cholesterol. She’s been featured on the TODAY show, Dr. Oz, and published in several national newspapers. The “Nutrition Quick and Dirty Tips” appears to be part of a larger “Quick and Dirty Tips” page group that covers a multitude of topics, from finances to parenting tips to exercise.

Episode at a Listen: Monica and her guest Dr. Sanaz Majd, discuss HDL cholesterol and its implications both low and high. I really liked that they started the discussion by telling the audience what HDL is and why it’s important. They talked about consequences of having it too low as it relates to heart problems, but they also talked about possible risks of having it too high. Monica pointed to a recent study that indicated that a high level of HDL (>60) could increase risk for a heart attack. When she asked Dr. Majd her thoughts on the subject, Dr. Majd said that there are some articles that point to a high HDL as bad, but there were other articles that said that it wasn’t that bad. Dr. Majd said that the jury is still out on the risks of having a high HDL.

Final Thoughts: This is a podcast I could really recommend, as it is hosted by a dietitian. The information is brought in a simplistic way for most to understand and they do explain the science behind it. Even though I listened to one episode, this podcast seems to be on the up and up in regards to how they are presenting information and how to explain it for everyone to understand.

Keto Answers Podcast with Dr. Anthony Gustin (45m – 1h30 episode length)

Podcast Summary: “The ONLY keto podcast hosted by a doctor, Keto Answers with Dr. Anthony Gustin (founder and CEO of PerfectKeto.com) features interviews with health and nutrition influencers, world-class thought leaders, and industry experts. With exclusive content that breaks down complex ideas to make them simple and digestible. We cover topics like weight loss, intermittent fasting, low carb and ketogenic diets, nutrition, healing chronic conditions and hormones.”

First Impression/Background Check: I will admit that I was already a bit skeptical when I read the bio of the podcast “hosted by a doctor.” Dr. Anthony Gustin is a chiropractor with certifications as chiropractic sports physician, certified strength and condition specialist, and a Crossfit coach. Knowing this, I’m really skeptical as this shows he has no formal certifications in nutrition. He seems to believe that the ketogenic diet is perfect for anyone, regardless of health concerns or disease state, and that “remember – you can fix yourself.”

Episode at a Listen: Gustin and guest Chris Dufey talked his new book and what he does with the ketogenic diet in everyday life. Background on Dufey, he is a certified personal trainer and online fitness business coach. Dufey talked about how his book could help bodybuilders and fitness competition athletes. I did like how Dufey mentioned that food is first and that supplements should be a gap filler, instead of adopting a need for supplementation. They talked about how “eating bad oils” and the problems that would result from that.

They also praised coconut oil and coconut oil butter. I wanted to wretch a bit at that.

They also discussed how Dufey uses intermittent fasting and how it has improved travel schedule as a speaker and fitness professional. I’m not sure I agree with how this information could be used for the general public.

Final Thoughts: It feels like he is trying to push the ketogenic diet and his company’s products as THE way to make the keto diet simple and manageable. One issue I have personally as former radio personality is that he needs some speech and audio engineering training in terms of delivery and volume. Throughout the episode, Gustin is talking much faster than he needs to be, OR he has altered the speed of the audio for some reason beyond me. The volume at times in his episodes seems to be off where he’s much quieter than his guests and the guests sound almost like they are shouting.

In terms of the information, I am a hard believer that the ketogenic diet is a fad diet and should only be implemented as a treatment in certain medical conditions. I feel like Gustin and his guest are aiming their information toward a specific population and don’t seem to provide information to the general public.

Bottom line, this is a podcast I wouldn’t recommend as there is a lot information that I simply do not agree with.

So, hopefully I helped enlighten you on what the field looks like in terms of podcasts on nutrition. There are probably at least 100 podcasts out there that give nutrition advice, so my advice to you is to look behind the scenes at the podcast. Are they credentialed? Where do they get their information from? What do their sponsors hope to gain from supporting that podcast? Does the sponsor skew the information or tell the host they can’t talk about a certain subject?

Make sure you ask those questions. Google searches can help you find some of those answers that the Podcast information won’t give you. You could be surprised.

One final thought: If you like humor, listen to the podcasts above. Some of them have no nutrition information, but they are pretty funny.

Photo credits: all photos courtesy Apple iTunes Podcast Page.