Fad Diets Spectacular!
Added 2021-07-27 09:01:00 +0000 UTCHappy July bonus episode, everybody!
Last month we asked you to send us the wildest fad diets you've tried and boy howdy did you come through. This episode covers The Rotation Diet, The Blood Type Diet, the Special K Challenge, Bethenny Frankel's Naturally Thin and The Shangri-La Diet. We also make brief stops at cabbage soup, a color-coded meal plan and a different rotation diet.
We recommend drinking two tablespoons of flavorless oil one hour before listening to this bonus episode. (jk, eat what you want!)
As ever, you can play today's episode directly through Patreon, or you can use our RSS feed to add it to your podcast app. Here are the instructions from Patreon.
Thanks to everyone who got in touch! See you in August, maintainers!
A&M
Comments
Ugh, my psychiatrist wanted me to try the blood type diet. A medical doctor. It sounds completely bat shit crazy.
Sammybunny711
2025-08-30 18:19:40 +0000 UTCOh god, I did the Special K Diet. I'm ashamed to say. I think I did it for seven days or so and all I had to show for it at the end was a loss of seven days of happiness.
Sammybunny711
2025-08-30 18:07:16 +0000 UTCGuys i have been meaning to say this since the first time i listened to this episode on the main feed: i spoon my bagels sometimes to fit more sandwich fixings in the bagel! Im vegan and the stuff i put on my sandwich is just not flat? Like tofu scramble which always falls off the bagel. But spooning the bagel helps, and i eat the inside pieces either while waiting for the rest of the meal to come together or they get turned into croutons. I would have never even eaten bagel a few years ago. And now they are part of my weekly diet. There is so much joy in bagels and i only spoon them for joy. Your podcast has helped make this possible.
Emily Salatino
2025-08-05 23:59:28 +0000 UTCAnd of course Rh antigen matters for transfusions, too and the true universal donor is 0 Rh- (and universal “taker” is AB+) and I’m super glad I found something to correct someone so well prepared on 😅
Marta Szymańska
2025-02-11 20:45:28 +0000 UTCActually 🤓 it’s not bad to give type 0 blood to someone with type A because 0 is so called universal donor (I know because I am one 😌)
Marta Szymańska
2025-02-11 20:42:11 +0000 UTCI had an eating disorder beginning at age 11. I literally forgot that the Special K Diet was one of the first crash diets that started everything. Holy crap. Thanks for thjs!
Megan E.
2024-11-28 08:48:17 +0000 UTCSuper late to the bonus episodes, and I was SO HOPING there would be a discussion of the blood types thing!! I had a deeply weird encounter like 15 years ago with the mom of one of my kiddo’s friends, who earnestly lectured me about how eating the right diet for my blood type (she did not know my blood type) would cure my infertility so I could have more kids (I did want more kids, but I had not told her that). Then I told her my infertility was due to no longer having ovaries 👹
Sylvia Hunter
2024-09-05 22:50:42 +0000 UTCThe Blood Type diet! I had a teacher pull me aside after class in 10th grade because she was concerned I was eating wrong for my blood type (I'm not actually sure how she knew my diet or my blood type? Or thought she did). She photocopied pages from the book for me. I was mortified.
Josie Sedai
2024-08-27 22:04:43 +0000 UTCI was on that first one on/off for most of high school. I remember never sleeping because I always felt so shitty. Crazy to hear it was an actual thing and not just some weird insane thing I found on tumblr and did for four miserable terrible years
Luke
2024-08-01 06:12:28 +0000 UTCI remember my mom doing the cabbage soup diet and also the baked potato diet which was so named because one of the nights dinner was a baked potato. Her cabbage soup was pretty good tho because she added stewed tomatoes and actual seasoning. She didn’t make anyone diet with her, but she always made enough that we could have some with our meal if we want.
Not_Machines
2024-07-31 17:45:35 +0000 UTCThat naturally thin diet sounds like a huge waste of food! If I saw someone "scooping" their bagel my first instinct would be to think they have an eating disorder
Symone West
2024-05-06 14:38:26 +0000 UTCVery minor thing, but type O can be given to anyone, but only receive from other O, so it’s the other way around. It’s dangerous to give A blood to an O person
Ace
2024-02-22 14:41:42 +0000 UTCLolololololol
Myerk Lamb
2024-01-03 09:29:45 +0000 UTCI honestly thought that when they said special k they mean ketamine
OrangeHued
2023-06-05 05:58:10 +0000 UTCI can’t get over the fact that the German title to the intuitive eating book by resch and tribole translates back to „intuitive weight loss“. And this has never been changed!
Juliane
2023-04-21 08:02:31 +0000 UTCI still love special K but it's not a meal 🤣🤣🤣 can't believe we all fell for that
Lauren W
2023-04-10 12:05:53 +0000 UTCMy church (ICOC Cult) made us all do the Eat Right 4 Your Type diet and it lead to SO much anorexia among the women leaders. It was crazy hard to meal plan because it restricted a lot of things that typically go together.
Lisa Fite
2023-04-05 18:40:59 +0000 UTClove you guys so much. I have ED-related compulsions to try fad diets and you guys always help to kind of snap me out of it and support my recovery ❤️
elias majchrzak
2023-02-28 23:02:23 +0000 UTCI love y'all, but I have to say...(voice drops to a whisper)...I actually like the cabbage soup? I never did the diet, but when I was on my own for the first time I'd make a big pot of it to have for dinner for the week.
WOOD, MORGAN
2023-02-02 19:42:23 +0000 UTCThe Rotation Diet was the first one I remember being put on…I think I was 11 or 12? It swept through my mom’s side like wildfire and we were all doing it. Whole wheat saltines and tuna and iceberg with FF Italian on repeat 🤮. Spoiler alert: I didn’t lose weight (cause I was fucking hitting puberty) and am now a fat 44yo who’s taken turns through lots of other diets since.
Jen Guzik
2022-12-12 05:44:46 +0000 UTCDid the special K diet when I was 14. I still cant eat cereal 2 decades later.
Fiona Hoyo Diaz Martinez
2022-09-16 07:42:43 +0000 UTCMy O blood coming to the comments to defend myself 😭
erinmarink
2022-09-04 17:22:15 +0000 UTCThis reply is pretty late but I got an ad for “intermittent fasting according to finger length” and it reminded me of this episode
Antje Schmidt Blanco
2022-08-18 14:27:47 +0000 UTCI have bought the South Beach Diet, Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type etc. I always buy them with that sick usual it will work but they are just so over the top steps you need to take that I never finish them (or the diet). I like how you both help me not feel like the failure that society does.
Lindsay Harford
2022-08-17 14:18:28 +0000 UTCOmg I was literally just going to comment about this too!! The language in that book is absolutely horrific in retrospect... I can't believe I treated it like the Bible at one point.
Carole O
2022-08-13 00:32:33 +0000 UTCLove all the episodes and can’t believe I waited so long to join the patreon!
Abbie scott
2022-08-12 14:08:25 +0000 UTCOk I’m Late to all these bonus episodes but I remember reading this awful diet book called skinny bitch in 2006. I was 18 and suffered from lots of disordered eating. The fun twist considered a fresh approach at the time?, the diet book abuses you and calls you a pig basically. Fun stuff! :(
Eleonaure Dufour
2022-08-04 01:33:13 +0000 UTCIntermittent Fasting episode please! And thank you for being the antidote to my more difficult family visits :)
Diana Daly
2022-07-16 15:58:46 +0000 UTCThe blood type was my first diet book purchase. ::cringe:: what was I thinking?????
Erin Malia Cross
2022-05-11 15:14:48 +0000 UTCSpecial K “you can’t pinch an inch on me” legitimately still lives in my head. In the ED part I’m still trying to fix.
Lillian Rolfe
2022-04-27 20:29:00 +0000 UTCAh, this took me back to the Kellogg brothers and the "Sanatorium" nonsense.
Jenn Palm
2022-04-07 18:55:18 +0000 UTCBlood Typing is complicated enough for me to have not realized I was RH- until I literally was having a miscarriage from carrying an RH+ fetus. (Somehow, my less than stellar healthcare provider skipped over the test in prenatal care until it was too late.) Probably don’t want to rely on Dr. IBoughtALabCoat to be throwing up stuff against the wall and see what sticks in the diet world with Blood Typing. And yet, like 20 people I know recommended that particular diet book to me over the years as the greatest thing ever.
Susie Geissler
2022-03-29 18:08:49 +0000 UTCOk but Michael going “Woah-pfffttttt” is my new ringtone
Jessica Digby
2022-03-20 18:29:01 +0000 UTCI was also coming here to defend scooped out New York bagels as a way to fit the cream cheese not a calorie saving plan
Alannah O'Hagan
2022-03-12 21:04:56 +0000 UTCJust saw a TikTok about a girl drinking oil and had to come back here to comment 😵💫😵💫 history is a flat circle https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdUCRJ7o/
Sara
2022-03-11 15:01:44 +0000 UTCI know absolutely nothing about Freakonomics and the trend/problems with it, would love to learn!
Lynda Mantle
2022-03-08 21:56:36 +0000 UTCIs it wrong that I had a craving for Special K when this episode was over?!
Emily Shandruk
2022-03-02 12:35:35 +0000 UTCIn 1999 I was in college and working in an office for the summer and this xerox started going around the office explaining the “Mayo clinic diet.” Supposedly it was what the Mayo Clinic would have patients eat if they had to lose weight before surgery. I don’t remember much of it except you were supposed to eat a white grapefruit or drink unsweetened white grapefruit juice after every meal. I have no idea why that was supposed to make you lose weight. I stuck with it for the whole three weeks or whatever it was but, like every time I tried to go on a diet, I didn’t lose any weight because I didn’t have enough energy to run, which I did every day when not on a diet.
CLC
2022-03-02 04:19:21 +0000 UTCHas anyone heard of the 3 Day Military Diet? My husband and I did it several times before big events/vacations. It prescribes meals for 3 days, and includes hot dogs and vanilla ice cream 😂 I believe day 3 lunch is 5 saltines, 1 hard boiled egg, and 1 cup of cottage cheese. Truly insane!
LD
2022-02-26 14:56:57 +0000 UTCOh man, when I was working as a barista people used to ask me to scoop out their bagels for them ALL THE TIME and I just assumed it was entitled white folk behavior but oh wow oh wow
FK
2022-02-24 16:12:41 +0000 UTCAs someone who has been struggling to get to sleep and stay asleep with depression, that solution is so fucking dumb lol
rocketsox
2022-02-22 15:30:55 +0000 UTCMy goodness. I just became a patron and was not expecting the flashback to my freshman year of college when my dorm roommate went on the Special K diet! She did it for several months and definitely lost weight but also looked super sickly and had no energy. I kept telling her it wasn’t a thing but she saw the scale numbers go down and kept at it. My DAD was inspired by her and did it too. 🤦🏻♀️
Emily Kofoed
2022-02-17 16:15:19 +0000 UTCThis is hilarious LOL
K
2022-02-16 20:30:40 +0000 UTCOh same! I eat a bagel & cream cheese everyday for breakfast (carryover from my childhood and still a favorite food) so I would go through a container every other day if I did that. I’ll take any bread/cheese combo though: pizza, cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, etc.
Sappy.Siggy
2022-02-10 01:05:51 +0000 UTCRight?! Subscribed because I already have listened to them all and started on them all again. Worth the money!!! I have already completely belly laughed while driving by myself.
Sappy.Siggy
2022-02-10 00:52:24 +0000 UTCNot that it super matters but just for accuracy's sake, mike got some of the blood facts wrong... type o is actually safe to donate universally but can't accept any other types and the RH factor difference is only dangerous to the baby in utero under certain conditions
Michal Samel
2022-01-31 06:22:57 +0000 UTCHere to defend scooped out bagels 😂 my go to order is a scooped out bagel toasted with vegetable cream cheese. If you know NY bagels you know they’re thicc and you know the schmear is gooped up on top. When you get it scooped out the inside toasts very evenly and deliciously and then the cream cheese sits on top. I have TMJ and it is way easier to eat when everything is even! Thank you for coming to my Ted talk 😂
Alexanda
2022-01-26 18:50:22 +0000 UTCI was hoping you guys would get to the Eat Right 4 Your Type diet for the whole episode, did not disappoint! I almost forgot about this but my mom is super into "healthy eating" and there was a period of several YEARS where she had the whole family on the blood type diet, except my half the family is type B and the other is type O and we had to eat completely different food at every meal.
Magpie
2022-01-15 05:55:43 +0000 UTCI remember the Special K diet. I remember trying it as a young college graduate because it was so easy! Grab a bunch of cereal and eat that! But I dropped off pretty immediately because of money/tastebud boredom.
Natalie
2022-01-14 18:49:28 +0000 UTCI loved Kate saying she hates crossfit toby!
Laura Edain
2022-01-06 18:09:19 +0000 UTCI’m type B and I hate tomato - blood type diet confirmed? 😅
Luna Peach
2022-01-03 08:12:30 +0000 UTCI'm thrilled that I have the Genghis Khan blood type. Guess I should go buy a yak. Also, Michael should absolutely google just "ABO" on a fiction site or romance book list and see what he finds.
Heather McIntyre
2021-12-29 01:56:16 +0000 UTCLove this show! FYI... the bagel/bread scooping that is described with the Bethany angle was featured on the BIGGEST LOSER!!! They did the whole subway commercial in the show and described scooping out the bread at Subway. Next week I joined the bread scooping cult. Never lost anything except my dignity
Rachel Augustine
2021-12-28 22:08:44 +0000 UTCMy partner literally said this when we were listening!
Tegan
2021-12-11 04:40:30 +0000 UTCAlso dying that Michael has never heard of Bethenny Frankel
Katie K
2021-12-07 21:08:46 +0000 UTCI can't stop laughing at the suggestion that the cure to depression is more sleep. That's literally what we depressed people do most.
Katie K
2021-12-07 20:58:15 +0000 UTCyes, I would enjoy a "cereal" episode!
Rebecca Bullock Godwin
2021-12-07 18:27:27 +0000 UTCOh, cereal! That could be an episode in itself: from the Brothers Kellogg to millennials killing it!
Rebecca
2021-11-17 12:06:15 +0000 UTCI was wondering if skinny bitch was just a fever dream I had (it was actually just the beginnings of disordered eating).
Sarah R Budisavljevic
2021-11-16 01:26:35 +0000 UTCOh my god PLEASE do a deep dive into Bethenny Frankel and 'skinnygirl'
Ingrid Boring
2021-11-04 09:45:33 +0000 UTCSarah I am so with you! I've had disordered eating problems off and on since middle school and I thought Noom might be a good way to cultivate more consistent habits and prevent relapse. It's just weight watchers with a cuter marketing campaign and obnoxious mobile notifications. No thank you.
Rachel Zitomer
2021-11-03 17:49:11 +0000 UTC... I had to go back and look at a few Freakanomics episodes. This is insane: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/100-ways-to-fight-obesity-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/?c_page=3
TheAccounting Chef
2021-10-28 19:21:59 +0000 UTCHuge thank you for the reminder in this episode about reminding ourselves not to feel bad for falling for diets. I have a complicated history with food due to poverty and food insecurity. And I recently joined Noom thinking it might be therapy for my food issues. Turns out it’s a diet. Just a diet. $170 down and I almost threw my phone when they were perpetuating the small plate myth. 🤣🤣
Sarah Plummer
2021-10-28 04:12:18 +0000 UTCI love how entire cultures date accoring to blood types but the idea of eating according to them seems to be where we draw the line 😄
Veronika Z
2021-10-25 19:08:35 +0000 UTCTake a bagel and make it sad!!!😹😹😹
Lauren Fasceski
2021-10-22 22:06:11 +0000 UTCOnly a few minutes in but I feel like cabbage soup actually sounds good? Probably smells like farts but i might make some at home.
Madison
2021-10-21 14:36:49 +0000 UTCI left a long comment here this morning. Where did it go??
Sharon McCreary
2021-10-14 23:44:08 +0000 UTCI can’t say enough how much I love Michael and Aubrey. In a world of non-critical thinking, they are a luxurious oasis that has me snort-laughing seemingly to myself in public. As a registered dietitian nutritionist, I really appreciated Aubrey’s mention of “moderation” as a gateway to eating disordered behavior. I consider myself to be someone who is more educated than most regarding disordered eating and eating disorders, but coming from a professional group where the word “moderation” is constantly used as a positive (never a negative), and even something those with eating disorders should strive for, made me blind to how this word in and of itself can be really problematic. I have personally seen how the general principle of “everything in moderation” just doesn’t work well for certain individuals in their recovery journey at certain stages, but, again, I hadn’t ever thought about how it could also be problematic for starting someone down the restrictive eating rabbit hole. Thank you, Aubrey, for helping me expand my world view and ability to be a better health coach, dietitian, friend and citizen. Same to Mike!!
The Penguin Affair
2021-10-13 16:59:36 +0000 UTCOmg that doc is bananas!!!!
Leighanna Pillgram-Larsen
2021-10-09 21:17:08 +0000 UTCPlease do an episode about Weigh Down Workshop!
Marjorie Old
2021-10-06 01:47:53 +0000 UTCOmg. I tend to think that I am a person who didn’t ever capital D Diet, but this bonus content def called me out 🤣. I legit tried the Special K diet while studying for the BAR. Because that’s a good time to deprive yourself of food, right? My product of choice was the “meal replacement” shakes. They actually weren’t that bad, but certainly not a meal. Thanks for doing what you’re doing—love your stuff!
Meggie Orgain
2021-10-05 14:12:24 +0000 UTCMy only problem with this podcast is that there are not enough episodes to consume (pun intended) at the rate I am consuming them. More delicious content please. ILY
Michelle Bourke
2021-10-03 06:02:59 +0000 UTCOmg I would just loooove to hear your takes on the blood group diet! 😂😂😂
Michelle Keller
2021-10-02 21:35:18 +0000 UTCIt had zero flavor! Zero! We were eating plain puffed rice 😭😭😭
Michelle Keller
2021-10-02 21:33:50 +0000 UTCI remember hearing about this diet! I remember the ads!
Michelle Keller
2021-10-01 14:34:21 +0000 UTCSo... did anyone else do a diet where you sprinkled some kind of chemical flakes on your food? I think the (clearly nonsense) pitch was that the flakes enhanced the flavor and so you would eat less. I think I spent $60 on a set of boxes and used them once. I just couldn't bring myself to bust them out in the middle of the office cafeteria.
Renata Strause
2021-09-30 02:41:19 +0000 UTCAs a (retired) anti-diet endocrinologist, I am loving this podcast. I had a drawing in my office of a doc telling a patient to go home and lose 40 lbs and Then come back and tell me how they did it
dianne budd
2021-09-29 16:21:44 +0000 UTCDiets Ive tried: Yoli, Skinny Bitch, South Beach, 17 day diet, WW, noom, 21 day fix, makers diet. Still Fat.
Emily L
2021-09-28 18:23:08 +0000 UTCOMG, the Rotation Diet! I did that as a student in 1988. Such a load of shit. I weep for my younger self who didn't need to lose weight but thought I did.
Judith Crowther
2021-09-28 13:27:51 +0000 UTCI can't wait to consume this ep. I was obsessed with "Naturally Thin" circa 2009 and only now realize it was essentially "Anorexia for Dummies."
Mary Donofrio
2021-09-27 19:08:56 +0000 UTCloved hearing Mike try to explain blood antigens. Since blood type is hereditary, and many diseases have a genetic basis, people can attribute differences in disease prevalence and outcomes to blood type, because BOTH have a genetic basis. The old correlation vs causation. Also small correction, anyone can receive O negative blood since it doesn't have A or B antigens
Kimberleigh Stan
2021-09-24 12:30:42 +0000 UTCI would love to hear your thoughts on Jordan Petersons meat-only diet.
Meredith Zolty
2021-09-20 18:51:49 +0000 UTCI had to think about a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip where Calvin says that Chocolate Covered Sugar Bombs are part of a nutritious breakfast and Hobbes says yeah but the guy in the picture is also eating five grapefruits and a dozen bran muffins. :-)
Janice Page
2021-09-18 15:01:32 +0000 UTCCan you guys do an episode on intermittent fasting? It really just looks like a sanctioned eating disorder to me, but I keep hearing that it has some actual benefits for people with specific conditions??? I am confused and you always help me with that. :)
Julie Saunders
2021-09-16 17:56:02 +0000 UTCYour podcast brings me so much hope, laughter, joy, acceptance and information. You're helping all of us de-program from the cult of self hatred, body shaming, and dieting. Thank you, thank you for being a light!
Karen Petty
2021-09-15 22:55:26 +0000 UTCBethenny Frankel “eat more real food and less processed foods!!”…proceeds to launch a line of heavily processed powders, bars and drinks..
Dana
2021-09-12 20:03:10 +0000 UTCKidney stones are a common complication of poor nutrition! I got them after my eating disorder. The worst pain ever.
Jennifer Clifford
2021-09-08 20:32:44 +0000 UTCMy grandparents put me on Jenny Craig when I was 15 and on adderall and I sure am a fat adult in recovery from an eating disorder now.
Jennifer Clifford
2021-09-08 20:31:45 +0000 UTCI have been having such a horrible mental health week, am just totally burnt out, so cancelled all my plans today and just lay on the sofa listening to all these bonus episodes. I feel so much better, you guys made me laugh so much and brought me out of a very dark mood! Keep doing what yous do, absolute legends ❤️
Steph Roden
2021-09-04 16:49:09 +0000 UTCThis fucking cereal. Not only was I supposed to eat it with skim milk, but I was chastised for adding calories by adding banana slices to it.
Molly
2021-09-02 11:47:25 +0000 UTCGuys. Fun fact. Pomelo is the ancient genetic ancestor of grapefruit so that ones safe 😂
Erica McKernan
2021-09-02 02:10:48 +0000 UTCOh my god somewhere deep inside I thought the special K challenge was a Mandela effect thing I was half remembering of compiled cereal company ads. IT WAS A REAL CAMPAIGN 😳😂
Erica McKernan
2021-09-02 02:03:51 +0000 UTCI loved Mike's mention of doing a whole episode of all the scams he has fallen for! I think we all become critical of scams by falling for at least some of them and it would be great to hear how he fell for them and what they were, when he knew it was a scam, etc. It feels like we have all fallen for something at some point, and recognizing those signs and feelings that something is off, maybe relevant to the sheer amount of BS people are falling for in this pandemic. Have you heard of Black Oxygen Organics or BOO? Its in all my anti-mlm groups, where people are literally bathing and drinking DIRT from next to a landfill in Canada. Its mind blowing! Its like $100 for a few ounces of dirt, then people are claiming it detoxes them with worms coming out of them. Not sure if its really worms (again DIRT) or stomach lining. ANYWAY, love the episode, we definitely had the cabbage soup diet in my house too! LOL
Lauren Traci
2021-08-30 15:27:50 +0000 UTCAka "the plomeek soup diet"
Rebecca
2021-08-30 12:21:51 +0000 UTCNow I must have a Star Trek themed fad diet.
ML Alex
2021-08-29 17:35:18 +0000 UTCCan you do an episode on the low GI diet? My parents were on it in the 2000s - I remember eating a lot of new potatoes and salmon!
Kirsty Harrod
2021-08-29 09:11:02 +0000 UTCcan’t wait to listen to this! maintenance phase is my favourite podcast, listenend to all episodes within the last 2 weeks and its the first patreon I ever subscribed to! love seeing that there are even bonus episodes and can’t wait to listen👏🏻 you both often talk about things that I could also rant about for hours! its great someone is uncovering and highlighting the bullshit going on in the fitness/wellness/diet industry (and beyond)!!
Little Anina
2021-08-29 08:29:13 +0000 UTCI had a personal trainer (at one of those No Enrollment Fee! gyms LOL) put me on a lean protein and only green veggie diet, which meant I ate basically chicken and broccoli or lettuce for 6 whole weeks. Until I got kidney stones! That was by far the worst one - I still don't know whether it was a "real" diet or just some shit he made up?
Amy Moorman
2021-08-27 18:49:13 +0000 UTCnoom: were not like other diets! we use psychology*** (***to make you eat less)
L Strwbrry
2021-08-26 20:10:40 +0000 UTCor the 2-4-6-8 (hi to my fellow former pro ana heads)
L Strwbrry
2021-08-26 20:08:20 +0000 UTCI loved this episode, as I love all your episodes and just you guys in general! You make me feel better about life and always make me laugh! I would love to see an episode on Noom someday. My mother-in-law swears it isn’t a diet and it’s really about intuitive eating. It drives me crazy!
Amy Orloski
2021-08-26 16:57:56 +0000 UTCThis reminded me of so many insane diets that I used to make up for myself. Luckily I never got a book deal for my self-experimentation. Thank you!
Cate Kneale
2021-08-25 15:09:47 +0000 UTCI’d love to see this! I’m from Wisconsin, the last state to legalize the sale of margarine (in 1967!!!). You could probably tie in the idea that kids need to drink hella milk. The dairy industry hits hard.
Magda F.
2021-08-19 13:37:39 +0000 UTCI don’t know if it warrants a whole episode so maybe just a bonus, but very interested to hear thoughts on This Is Us and the arc of Kate and Toby.
Sharon Fain
2021-08-18 21:39:55 +0000 UTCThis took me back to me once buying the Karl Lagerfeld diet book. Threw it out long ago, otherwise would’ve gladly gifted it to you guys 😂
Marijke
2021-08-17 18:40:34 +0000 UTCWhat’s wrong with Freakonomics?
Sarah Drizen
2021-08-16 02:55:37 +0000 UTCEpisode suggestion: read and review "Body of Truth"! https://www.amazon.com/Body-Truth-Science-Obsession-Weight/dp/0738218820
Marissa Collins
2021-08-15 18:58:33 +0000 UTCNot a fad diet, BUT Could you do something on gastric surgery and alcohol abuse? I know someone whose life was absolutely ruined after the surgery. She ended up with amputations, and permanent brain damage, from the worst sepsis, after a drunken night and passing out, outside. The psychologist eval before the surgery was less than thorough.
Sam Murphy
2021-08-15 14:21:09 +0000 UTCplease do one on calorie counting apps like noom/My Fitness Pal please!
Apoorva
2021-08-15 02:19:10 +0000 UTCOmg please do more content about Freakenomics!!! Those books drive me insane! Not quite to the rage level of Malcolm Gladwell but close.
MC
2021-08-14 22:24:23 +0000 UTCMy mother and I did that hot dog and ice cream diet when I was in high school! Late 80s.
Kristen North
2021-08-13 20:26:48 +0000 UTCYES! My mom is spending so much money on the Optavia con.
Rachel
2021-08-13 18:45:54 +0000 UTChave you folks thought about doing an episode about butter vs margarine? like how it came to be. i mean maybe it needs to be part of a larger conversation but that just popped in my head while watching a waffle commercial 🥴
J
2021-08-13 00:13:30 +0000 UTCThis episode has reminded me how many fad diets I've done over the years: The Cheating Diet, SlimFast, low carb, Shangri-La, intermittent fasting..... And I'm still tempted, as if the next one, the right one, is just around the corner.
JDC
2021-08-10 02:08:04 +0000 UTCI had a boss who was frequently on the cabbage soup diet and would nuke it in the office microwave for breakfast at 8:30 am. Come to think of it, she was probably a monster because she was constantly dieting and had to drag everyone else into her pit of misery.
Furbekah
2021-08-09 21:24:23 +0000 UTCI missed the chance to email in but I've been making a list of all the diets I've been on. I'm at 19. Mostly because my memory is bad. I enjoyed this episode so much!
Trudi
2021-08-09 19:23:47 +0000 UTCSpent my Sunday afternoon laughing and feeling like I found new members of my tribe.
Deb M
2021-08-09 01:05:30 +0000 UTCAubrey, I wish we could be friends IRL. You're the shit.
Liz
2021-08-07 06:57:19 +0000 UTCThank you so much for your wonderful content it brightens my day.
Amy Tombleson
2021-08-06 01:57:23 +0000 UTCSo, as far as whether one white guy experimenting on himself constitutes scientific evidence, the answer (to the best of my knowledge) is no, but *not* because n = 1. Rather, it's because science is conducted by an observer on a phenomenon external to themselves. Case studies are a legitimate (though not generalizable) form of science, if conducted using rigorous measurement by an external observer, and can (and should!) be used to inspire experimental studies where variables are manipulated and causality can be inferred.
Mary Blendermann
2021-08-05 19:37:44 +0000 UTCLoved this one, and frankly, all the shows. I would love to hear you talk about the green-washing of "wellness". You hit on it a bit on the Moonjuice episode, and my mind has not stopped thinking about that, and all the billion spinoffs to that idea. I was hoping you could look at consumption & controlling of (usually) women's bodies in eco-fascism, and how the wellness industry exasperates this. The roll social media plays in the false "virtue" narrative, OMG. When ever I turn down ice cream my mother says mockingly: "Oh you are being virtuous". There is some weird stuff going on there in the moralizing. THANK YOU!💕
Sam Murphy
2021-08-05 17:12:23 +0000 UTCI realized, while listening to your podcasts, that I am not alone to just shout FUCK YOU or SHUT UP in the face of bullshit+fatphobia.... I started doing that when I watch tv shows or movies at home, usually with my boyfriend. Now that I heard Aubrey reacting that way in all the podcasts, I am glad to know I am not weird or too much? Anyway, I absolutely love all your podcasts, and probably like everyone here, i would just listen to you two talk about anything, it's just so interesting and fun. Thank you for the work that you do ❤️
Gabrielle L.R.
2021-08-05 13:52:20 +0000 UTCI would love a sort of round-up style bonus episode like this one for bizarre/absurd celebrity diets and food diaries. I go back and read the one by Amanda Chantal Bacon every so often when I need the good laugh. I feel like those things start to dispel the "rich celebs are so relatable! you can be like them!" trope the media loves to play into. And I also agree with Michael that making fun or rich people for doing dumb rich people shit is fine and sometimes downright enjoyable.
Allie L.
2021-08-04 12:17:01 +0000 UTCOh no, I meant to ask about this one but didn't get to it before you did your research! [oops] In the ... early to mid 80s probably? My mom did this diet for a while that involved a wide array of unusual supplements. I want to say they were mostly like straight amino acids or something like that, not the usual vitamins. L-Tryptophan sticks in my mind - and I see now that the FDA banned that in 1989 because it was widely used and causing serious problems! Have you heard of this??
Christopher Tate
2021-08-04 03:55:39 +0000 UTCI have just got my medical check in Japan, and I got a B because my BMI is supposedly too high. There is also a legend that Japanese women are magically skinner. No, they just starve every day.
NotaManga
2021-08-03 10:47:28 +0000 UTCHad to pause to laugh at the "bagel trench" because I'd fill it with cream cheese. "Am I not doing this diet right?"
Alicia Cary-Howell
2021-08-02 20:06:03 +0000 UTCLmao I remember that Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type diet book. I immediately knew it was full of shit because it said I should eat a ton of red meat... and I'm vegan. 😂
Kate McDonell
2021-08-02 08:54:19 +0000 UTCHuhhhhh??? dexa scans measure bone density...now I'm intrigued about what nonsense is being spewed in these online communities
Marci & Ulises Ramirez
2021-08-02 04:04:32 +0000 UTCRegarding the ubiquity of the cabbage soup diet, it made me think about how Big Boy/Bob's Big Boy restuarants always had cabbage soup on the menu (and maybe still do? I haven't been in one in over a decade so I'm not sure). I swear that I remember reading something on one of the menus that it was "so people doing the cabbage soup diet could still eat there" but that might be a false memory/me conflating something that like, my aunt or someone told me with what was on the actual menu. Still, very curious about the Big boy/cabbage soup connection now.
Kat Heagberg
2021-08-01 23:12:08 +0000 UTCI don't know if this counts as a diet, but does anyone else remember the now defunct MY PET FAT, the plastic model of fat meant to be carried around to motivate you not to eat? My mother was thiiiis close to buying one. As a family we've done a ton of these: Special K, HCG, Nutrisystem, Slimfast, any exercise program that came on VHS...
Emily Kuntz
2021-08-01 19:06:32 +0000 UTCI would love an episode about the MLM diet angle (Herbalife made this pop in my head!)
Ariel Cummins
2021-08-01 15:51:18 +0000 UTCI would love to hear an episode about adrenal fatigue / anti-inflammatory diets (they seem to go hand in hand). From my understanding and what I’ve read, the research doesn’t support this phenomenon of adrenal fatigue, but yet it’s alll the rage in the health world… and is looking more and more like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. THANK YOU for this podcast. It’s my favorite and one I recommend to everyone!!
Kaitlin
2021-08-01 02:12:37 +0000 UTCOMG that would be a fun deep dive. Remember that Pick-Up Artist crap on MTV???
Ellen Rissinger
2021-07-31 12:31:44 +0000 UTCI'm gonna echo M M and say that the personality type/blood type pairing is pretty universal here in Japan (even if you don't believe it, you know your blood type for sure), and I was wondering the same thing about whether that inspired that diet. Great episode as always. <3
N.
2021-07-31 11:03:37 +0000 UTCCan you do a Patreon episode about Freakonomics and the life hacking craze of the 2010s? 😁
Julie Scanlon
2021-07-30 23:48:35 +0000 UTCHi! I don’t know if someone commented this already, but I’m Japanese, and in Japan there is a widely accepted blood type personality theory that mirrors all the weird personality types described in in the blood type diet. I remember as a kid we all judged each other based on our blood types (it was sort of like our horoscopes, but fully accepted as fact by everyone) and this is also how I know what my blood type is today. I just wondered whether Peter J D’Adamo drafted some of those ideas for his “diet” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_type_personality_theory
M M
2021-07-30 19:14:29 +0000 UTCSounds like someone needs to be reported to the medical board...
Diana M
2021-07-30 09:26:20 +0000 UTCOk... Go with me on this, bc I think you guys are gonna LOVE it. Ihave no idea if this is true, but if it is ... Omg lol. Just... Watch please ... https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdvWfA9n/
Laura Hayes
2021-07-29 23:44:51 +0000 UTCGonna need Dawn's burger pin, honestly.
Rebeccuh
2021-07-29 16:37:27 +0000 UTCThe idea that something is good for our "type" seems to be really attractive to us humans, so I would like to propose modifying Mike's Vowel Diet idea with The Name Diet, where you eat only foods beginning with the same letter as the letters in your name. Also, this was a really emotionally rich episode and I love your compassion and hilariousness in equal measures.
Grace
2021-07-29 09:54:48 +0000 UTCI found that book in a little free library the other day and grabbed it so it can't hurt anyone else. Skimming it and realizing how much damage it really did to me when I read it in high school
Amy Shine
2021-07-29 07:33:02 +0000 UTCI was thinking this, not because I know many Japanese people, but because of the Sailor Moon manga.
Amy Shine
2021-07-29 07:27:40 +0000 UTCWhen I hear about the rotation diet I think "ana boot camp diet "
Amy Shine
2021-07-29 07:26:36 +0000 UTCThe rotation diet absolutely sounds like that uncle character in the Nancy Mitford books who thinks the key to health is to constantly “surprise” your body to keep it on its toes 😂😂😂
Caroline Cox
2021-07-29 07:16:42 +0000 UTCYou know, you could do a similar extravaganza about dating advice writing! It’s basically all either just made up, or based on one person’s experience. No research or testing is expected. But as with diets, and people desperate to be thin, single people are often desperate to figure out what’s not working for them. Again the real answer is probably either “luck” or “I don’t know.”
Rosalie Genova
2021-07-29 01:31:42 +0000 UTCThe cabbage soup deal is crazy! I guess Brazil stayed out of that trend. Someone probably thought: what’s worse than cabbage soup? Oh, I know: onion soup. Yep, onion soup. ONION. SOUP. In all fairness, cabbage was one of the few vegetables you were allowed to add to the soup once a day — the soup was basically water + onion + parsley + celery. You were allowed to add one carrot every other day and cabbage if you got hungry (I mean…) and the diet consisted of 30 straight days of onion soup. In case you needed to lose more weight, you’d take a week “off” (no carbs, no fruits) and take on the onion soup for an extra 20 days for as long as needed. In other words, until you couldn’t take anymore onion soup and were starving or when you got sick because your body wasn’t getting the nutrients it needed. Yeah, great times.
Ludimila C. de Albuquerque
2021-07-29 00:02:00 +0000 UTCI’m using “did you not have your butter today?” as much as possible.
Crystal Baker
2021-07-28 23:59:38 +0000 UTCSo funny and sad at the same time. Love this pod and all of you! Found my tribe. And yes, so many cereal bars….
Lisa Johnson
2021-07-28 22:12:46 +0000 UTCLove the show! Thanks for the bonus content. Your description of the blood type diet had me cracking up.
Rose
2021-07-28 21:50:12 +0000 UTCThank you for covering the Special K Diet! I remember trying it numerous times and failing. Your podcast has really helped me address my pattern of disordered eating.
Sarah Hamm
2021-07-28 20:24:35 +0000 UTCI just joined today after listening to Celery Juice & Oprah and the Wagon of Fat ...can't wait to hear this one!!
Sara Blumenthal
2021-07-28 20:19:35 +0000 UTCI became a patron last week and this is my first bonus episode!! The segment on the Special K diet awakened within me a deep, dormant memory of middle school dieting. So many cereal bars.
Julia
2021-07-28 20:15:46 +0000 UTCthe special k diet threw me BACK oh my god i remember my mum doing it and being just MISERABLE
Chelsea
2021-07-28 19:48:01 +0000 UTCAubrey, I love quince and enjoy it very much. 😜😂 Thanks for a great show. I was 11 or 12 when I snuck my mom's Slim Fast and starved myself. Just went downhill from there.
Jennifer Valenti
2021-07-28 19:14:39 +0000 UTCAnother fantastic episode ❤
M Dunne
2021-07-28 18:35:16 +0000 UTCWow, my (ex-)doctor recommended the blood type diet to me recently! This ep made me realize all the flags I missed w him re: “wellness”—soon after he told me about the blood type diet he begged me not to get vaccinated because it would turn me into an infertile spike protein factory and showed me a bunch of QAnon articles about military tribunals executing politicians. Truly wild.
Marissa Bennett
2021-07-28 18:02:00 +0000 UTCMy fad diet: once I was talking about my fat pet rabbit losing 30% of his body weight and someone at work did not realize I was talking about a rabbit and asked what his plan was. It was Timothy Hay and getting chased by a cat.
Chelsea
2021-07-28 17:21:23 +0000 UTCI need that f*ck your diet pin that Dawn mentioned! Dawn, where is it from? Can we have maintenance phase pins?! I’d spend all of my money on those!
Alli Suriani
2021-07-28 17:11:02 +0000 UTCBethany Frankel wasn't really a "throw wine in your face" kind of character on RHONY. I believe she branched out farther because she was actually kinda funny/relatable . However, she became more and more unrelatable and her incessant focus the SKINNY lifestyle was cringe af.
Stacy De Los Reyes
2021-07-28 16:21:43 +0000 UTCI'm still very confused about how the self study guy figured anything out about pregnant women.
Brandy Parker
2021-07-28 14:47:36 +0000 UTCPlease do an episode on fish oil tablets/pills. I remember my dad and moms took these for a few months because it was supposed to make them healthier but I wanna know why and if it actually helped anything.
Ruth
2021-07-28 14:26:58 +0000 UTCKinda sad that the category Most Insane Diets didn’t make it - I.e. the hot dogs, beets and vanilla ice cream diet I did in the 1990s (laughing and crying emoji). But this bonus reminded me of all the insane diets I’ve done - from Bethany’s three bites to French Women Dont Get Fat to eating a half grapefruit before every meal (the acid burns fat!) to a fork WITH A TIMER ON IT that only let me take a bite when the light was green. Sigh. LOVE the idea of an episode on the transformation of the language so that people can say “I’m not on a diet” or “it isn’t restrictive” when THEY ARE ON A DIET and IT IS AS RESTRICTIVE AS the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. Sorry for the yelling. I’m hangry.
Lisa Healy
2021-07-28 14:26:50 +0000 UTCThe way you described the Special K "challenge" made me realize just how normalized this stuff was for me growing up. I never would have looked at "eat a bowl of cereal for 2 meals a day" as a f*cked up disordered thing back then, but now it's like the blinders are off. Yikes forever.
Kate McDonald
2021-07-28 13:56:48 +0000 UTChave yall heard of the Skinny B*tch diet bc it’s horrible and I’d love an episode digging into it. really messed with me in my twenties. love this podcast! y’all are fantastic!
Daniela
2021-07-28 13:42:54 +0000 UTCBy the Book podcast lived by it in their first season and it triggered the one woman’s eating disorder 😢 it can’t be good!!
Ellen Rissinger
2021-07-28 10:43:40 +0000 UTCY’all I got curious after listening to the Blood Type Diet and it turns out the diet industry is predictable af. Now people are selling “DNA-based diets.” You send them your DNA and they prescribe your diet for you. You’ll never guess. Apparently it is no more or less effective than any other diet!
Annie B
2021-07-28 05:16:41 +0000 UTCThis was yet another great episode. I completely forgot I did the Special K diet (I also just gained weight on this because I was so hungry I overate) and Naturally Thin too. Diet culture: where you do so many diets you don’t even remember them all… At the time I really justified Naturally thin because it “wasn’t a diet” but woof- it really screwed me up. I was on a online forum that broke down all the steps and how to justify that thought process. Looking back it was pretty disturbing. Anyway- thanks again for the great work! Can’t wait for the next.
Leslie Holmes
2021-07-28 04:56:01 +0000 UTCI am so happy to support you guys on here, but I'm a little sad that not everyone has access to this great episode.
Micah Scott
2021-07-28 03:33:36 +0000 UTCI wish I had known about this Tiktok trend where people are "deworming" themselves so I could send that one in. A warning to anyone who might investigate this one further - people are straight up posing pictures of their poop as "proof" of efficacy
Ren
2021-07-28 03:00:12 +0000 UTCI love a good crowdsourced episode… I would love to hear one about the worst (unsolicited) diet advice people have received. Like what it was, where they were when they received it and how they reacted.
Hayley
2021-07-28 02:19:03 +0000 UTCOMG YES! I essentially cook vegan because of my and my husband's various allergies and IBS problems, so I joined a bunch of vegan cooking groups on Facebook, and those are full of toxicity. Someone posts a photo of delicious-looking, all-vegan fried comfort food and the first comments are always, "That may be vegan but it's not healthy." And the poster is like, "Yes? I know... It's not intended to be..." Then on the other side there are ethical vegans who get mad at indigenous folks for eating their traditional indigenous foods and that's just something else.
Julianna P.
2021-07-28 01:57:30 +0000 UTCYes, with O- the Red Cross blood drive folks can get BIZARRELY pushy about donor appointment scheduling.
A
2021-07-28 01:52:54 +0000 UTCAlso, I had three roommates in college who followed what they called the "Instincto" diet - which meant they ate only raw food, but also meat. This caused quite a bit of tension within our vegan/vegetarian coop, and I have lots of stories.
Erica Simmons
2021-07-28 01:26:32 +0000 UTCI'm late to the suggestions, but I would love to hear an episode on the Carnivore Code. My fiance recently read the book, and it's like a parody of insane diet books (except it's not meant to be a joke). It's got it all - a fall-from-grace narrative, extreme over-extrapolation of citations, and lots of over-promising. My fiance ran around shouting "plants are trying to kill you!" for a couple weeks after that.
Erica Simmons
2021-07-28 01:24:56 +0000 UTCI wrote in about it, that baby really fired my disordered eating into overdrive with its "binge once a week" methodology.
Mellzah
2021-07-27 23:49:20 +0000 UTCSomething I'd love to hear you guys talk about is DEXA scans, which are supposed to show your fat vs. muscle body composition. I'm in a few online women's fitness/weightlifting communities and people go absolutely wild for them, but I'm skeptical for some reason of their accuracy.
Carly Gove
2021-07-27 21:28:35 +0000 UTCI didn't think to send it in, but someone close to me is doing the Slow Carb diet (4 hour body / Tim Ferris). I think it makes them miserable LOL. Has anyone else encountered this?
Stephanie Hall
2021-07-27 21:25:23 +0000 UTCOH for sure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_cracker#History
Bridey
2021-07-27 20:53:13 +0000 UTCIn high school I would take a bagel for lunch and scoop it out, to make room to shove a hersey bar in there. If you've never had a chocolate bagel - i highly recommend.
SROK
2021-07-27 20:23:38 +0000 UTCThe blood type diet just sounds like a slightly updated version of the four medieval humors. Feeling bloated? Too much yellow bile! Chew on this root, don't eat turnips, and avoid looking crows in the eye.
Allie L.
2021-07-27 19:49:10 +0000 UTCI’m a molecular biologist and an expert in ABO blood group genetics and the blood type diet is making my head explode. I don’t even know where to begin.
kerry lannert
2021-07-27 19:32:38 +0000 UTCThe Special K diet makes me think of a personal essay by a Korean adoptee dealing with depression and only eating Frosted Flakes. Turns out if you only eat cereal (any cereal), you'll probably lose weight while you eat like that.
Crystal Robinson
2021-07-27 19:32:13 +0000 UTCI FORGOT that I tried the Special K diet! It sounds so bananas now that I can't believe there was advertising about it - but I know I didn't just think it up on my own. Special K makes your breath kinda not great, to begin with, so to be starving on top of it... I ate so much sugar free gum during that time.
Bridey
2021-07-27 19:30:44 +0000 UTCThis was wild, and it made my birthday even better!
Oddity
2021-07-27 19:07:23 +0000 UTCEpisode idea! Who remembers the book "French Women Don't Get Fat"? I feel like you guys could tear that one apart!
Christina Johnson
2021-07-27 18:52:05 +0000 UTCALSO I'm "naturally thin" and have never once scooped out a bagel fuck that
Raven Loucks
2021-07-27 17:33:47 +0000 UTCOmg the bagels. In middle school someone told me bagels were the equivalent of "five pieces of bread" and I felt weird about them for years until I READ THE FUCKING NUTRITION LABEL. Also bagels are great, and five servings of grain at once would be excellent to get to that 12 servings a day
Raven Loucks
2021-07-27 17:30:16 +0000 UTCHave you considered doing an episode on Veganism? I think it'd be interesting because there seems to be some health benefits to the vegan lifestyle but from my experience knowing vegans it seems to be connected both to outrageous health/weight loss claims and cult-like organizations. Not to mention how snugly the development of vegan foods fits with large companies' quests to find new market niches.
Eli
2021-07-27 17:30:06 +0000 UTCAnd this is why “evolutionary psychology” is mostly fake science.
Lydia Thornton
2021-07-27 17:19:27 +0000 UTCOof, i went to my college’s TEDx (independent TED) conference and was SUPER into it. Ten years later I get viscerally uncomfortable when someone makes me watch one. I guess there’s nothing inherently wrong with the format, but they just feel so…polished to the point of becoming trite.
Bailey
2021-07-27 16:23:31 +0000 UTCListening to the Blood Type Diet & I have a correction. O blood can be given to A recipients (before accounting for Rh factors). A blood cannot be given to O recipients.
Darth Peaches
2021-07-27 15:47:16 +0000 UTCI just laughed so hard!
Kristie
2021-07-27 15:33:07 +0000 UTCYay! So excited. This will get me through house cleaning today. Also, as a former "holistic health coach" then "corporate wellness provider" AND former behavior analyst, I cannot wait to hear you both tear apart my former work 🤣. I also totally volunteer for any and all inside info.
Rachel Maeroff
2021-07-27 15:29:29 +0000 UTCAnyone else get sucked into the baby food diet thanks to gwyneth Paltrow years ago? Because I did 😖
Emily Pryor
2021-07-27 15:21:32 +0000 UTCSo good. But, now I want an episode that's just you both ranting about TED Talks. 🙂 I've seen so much BS in those without even trying, I would love to see what you could unearth if you really went searching for it.
Sarah Nowak
2021-07-27 14:54:30 +0000 UTCAlso, fun fact, the "Turnip Winter" that effectively signalled the beginning of the end of Germany being able to conduct the war because of the strict rationing it necessitated put in place a higher calorie content than the "cheat days" of the rotation diet (official rationing was about 1500 calories a day). So it's worth bringing up that if a diet is making you subsist on less food than inspired the Germans to rise up and overthrow the kaiser, it's probably not good for you.
Hedrigal
2021-07-27 14:46:57 +0000 UTCI forgot about my American university flatmate who did paleo and the special k diet seemingly at the same time, so was eating cereal and eggs and bacon? I was very confused but then can't say anything because at university I started eating salad without understanding that yes I would run out of energy and eat a huge bar of chocolate. Heh, balance
Charlie Eastabrook
2021-07-27 14:37:09 +0000 UTCSuch a good episode!
Susan Furber
2021-07-27 14:37:08 +0000 UTCMy favorite element of a diet I tried: UNLIMITED CAULIFLOWER! That triggered some IBS right quick.
Meredith Zolty
2021-07-27 14:35:51 +0000 UTCI think the problem a lot of nutritionists have with it is that it claims not to be a diet, when it is? At least that's what I've seen them moaning about on Instagram 🤗
Charlie Eastabrook
2021-07-27 14:35:15 +0000 UTCI worked in a health food store for a few years in my early 20s and that blood type diet was all the rage. I didn’t even know until literally right now that it was a weight loss diet, I just assumed everyone around me was doing it because it would improve their health. The environment was FULL of that sort of weird quackery, lots of talk about candida, sugar-avoidance, the evils of “white foods” etc. I was young and took it all at face value but never actually tried any of these things with any real effort because I liked cake and had been a vegetarian for years (no blood type diet venison for me). I realize now that it took me several years to really start questioning all of what was told to me in that time. Wild.
Jennifer Whiteford
2021-07-27 14:34:28 +0000 UTCIm interested in if christian asceticism is the source for a lot of the cultural assumptions people have about the dirt that makes you most miserable being the best for you? Because one thing I've noticed is that while there's nothing scientific backing up that claim, it does remind me a lot of when I was studying the classics and byzantine authors talked about monks who believed that by never washing, wearing only extremely uncomfortable and coarse clothes, and barely eating brought them into communion with god (they also spent all day standing on top of a pillar yelling at people for sinning, but that seems less relevant to dieting). That whole tradition had a big influence in particular on the faiths that are at the root of a lot of American Christianity, and on the Dominican friars who are the patrons of the "god hates fun" wing of catholicism.
Hedrigal
2021-07-27 14:10:41 +0000 UTCIt's funny you mentioned that the blood type diet seems like astrology - amongst some of my Japanese friends that does actually seem to be a thing. Blood types are used as personality descriptions and come up a lot in the context of dating.
Sarah de Haas
2021-07-27 14:05:16 +0000 UTCOMG I also get filled with rage when someone invokes the Stone Age to dictate how we “should” act. ANYONE CAN MAKE UP A SILLY LITTLE STORY ABOUT THE TIME BEFORE RECORDED HISTORY TO JUSTIFY WHAT THEY ALREADY BELIEVE. I hypothesize that the reason we don’t like hanging our feet over the edge of the bed is because our ancestors slept in trees and predators could pull them down by a dangling foot! It’s hardwired! See? Anyone can make up a cute little parable! Anyway, loved the episode!
Bailey
2021-07-27 13:45:13 +0000 UTCI was listening to another podcast (Depresh Mode with John Moe, ep Eating Disorders, What we knew before and what we know now with Alexandra Paul) and they interviewed a Dr Jillian Lampert who studies EDs and has found genetic components that explain why some people are more susceptible than others. It would be great to have a (probably pretty dark) episode discussing EDs and how their perception has changed over time including this new research.
Suzanne Polzkill
2021-07-27 13:33:31 +0000 UTCI've been waiting for this one!
singjunebug
2021-07-27 13:05:51 +0000 UTCI love these! Thank you so much! The invoking the Stone Age thing reminded me of the book Paleofantasy by Marlene Zuk. Amazing book.
Sean Thornton
2021-07-27 12:51:38 +0000 UTCI am so happy!! Yay! Thank you A + M!
Liz Winston
2021-07-27 12:22:25 +0000 UTCLoved it! So, I didn't send in a submission because I don't think I've been on a particularly weird diet, but my husband and I are currently doing Noom. I did it last year and lost 30 lbs quite easily, but I gained it all back. Not because I stopped doing the "diet" but because I chose to quit using the things I learned and opted to do Door Dash almost every night. My husband and I are now back on Noom and it's working again. Do you guys have an episode planned for Noom? I see a lot of Tik Tok "nutritionists" slamming it, but their arguments show they clearly haven't read the material. I'm sure you guys will find tons wrong with it, but I believe your deep dives over nutritionists who are competing for those diet dollars.
Kristie
2021-07-27 12:22:23 +0000 UTCYay! New episode drops always make my day! Love you guys!
Lillie
2021-07-27 11:58:38 +0000 UTCHaha dw same x
Alana Muir
2021-07-27 10:32:42 +0000 UTCOmg so excited to listen I was just browsing thru the regular podcast and wondering what to listen to for the 10th time looool this is better
Rósa
2021-07-27 09:21:43 +0000 UTCYasss. New episode made my day. Thanks 💕💯
Alana Muir
2021-07-27 09:10:04 +0000 UTC
