Understanding America's Nutrition Report Card and Its Implications for Weight Loss

Jim Hill:

Welcome to Weight Loss And, where we delve into the world of weight loss. I'm Jim Hill.

Holly Wyatt:

And I'm Holly Wyatt. We're both dedicated to helping you lose weight, keep it off, and live your best life while you're doing it.

Jim Hill:

Indeed, we now realize successful weight loss combines the science and art of medicine, knowing what to do and why you will do it.

Holly Wyatt:

Yes, the “And” allows us to talk about all the other stuff that makes your journey so much bigger, better, and exciting.

Jim Hill:

Ready for the “And” factor?

Holly Wyatt:

Let's dive in.

Jim Hill:

Here we go. Holly, today's episode is all about grades. It's time for the Nutrition Report Card.

Holly Wyatt:

Wow, Jim. And I don't know if you know this, but March is National Nutrition Month. Did you know that?

Jim Hill:

I did know that.

Holly Wyatt:

You did. So if there was ever a time to check in on how we're doing as a country when it comes to eating well, I think this is a good time.

Jim Hill:

Yeah, Holly, and what led us to do this is a study that just came out that analyzed how Americans have been eating from 1999 to 2020, so just over 20 years, and the results are in. Some areas got a good passing grade, like cutting back on sugary drinks, but other areas, let's just say that some of us might need to stay after class for extra help.

Holly Wyatt:

I hear you. And here's a big shocker. I didn't really realize this. Less than 2% of Americans are eating what researchers call an ideal diet. But that's worse than I think the percentage of people who are still using their gym membership in March. That's not a good number, Jim.

Jim Hill:

That's right, Holly. So let's break it down in today's episode. Where are we winning? Where are we failing? And most importantly, what can you do to get an A-plus on your own nutrition report card?

Holly Wyatt:

And since it's National Nutrition Month, what's better time to check in and see how we're really doing? No judgment, no extremes, but just take a look at where we are.

Holly Wyatt:

And as always, what changes could we actually make to maybe move the needle even a little bit?

Jim Hill:

Let's dive in and see if we pass or fail. So maybe start out by telling us a little bit about the study that just came out.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. So this is a big study. It analyzed over 50,000 adults. So this is about adults. This isn't about kids. I think that's one thing to keep in mind. But it analyzed 50,000 adults across 20 years using NHANES data, which is really considered, I think, the gold standard in nutrition research. But I think like any type of data set that we get, this is a lot of data, but is it really reflecting what we eat, Jim? I think we always have to start there. We're going to talk about the data, but is it really what we're eating? Can we trust it?

Jim Hill:

So Holly, this data set is really amazing. It's NHANES, which stands for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. So they take a subset of Americans and they go in and they measure all kinds of stuff. They do amazing. They measure height, weight, they measure body composition, they use wearables. And one of the things they do is get some information on diet. Here's the rub, though. While a lot of this information is sort of objective, you measure it on the person, the diet information comes from people's memory, from people remembering what they ate. Now, you know, I am not a big fan of the accuracy of people remembering what they ate. And even though this is an amazing data set, we have to realize this is one big caveat and a lot of people now have been very critical of self-reported dietary intake. And again, Holly, it's not that people are lying. It's that people, it's hard to remember exactly what you ate yesterday or even, you know, for breakfast today.

Holly Wyatt:

Well, I think, you know, I ask people all the time, what did you eat? And I think they tend to remember the days that they ate well and maybe tend to forget, oh yeah, and I had this. I mean, and I don't think it's purposeful. I think that we're kind of wired to do that, to kind of give the answers of, well, yeah, I remember having that salad and I remember eating that vegetable, but I maybe don't remember as well some of the other times.

Jim Hill:

So I do think it's a big problem for our understanding of nutrition of the population, that what people say they're eating isn't necessarily what they're eating. Lots of people are using diet information, and there are groups of researchers that argue that even though it might not be totally accurate, you can still learn from trends, etc. So this study used that self-reported information from a lot of people. With that caveat, let's talk about what they found.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, I think you just got to keep it in the back of your mind, but I think it can show us some things. I think this data can help us at least look for maybe trends and how things are changing because, you know, maybe that the numbers aren't exactly right, but it can show us changes over time.

Jim Hill:

So Holly, how many people or what proportion of people did this study find that are eating a poor diet?

Holly Wyatt:

How did they define poor in this intermediate and this ideal? Because, you know, I just said that only 2% are reporting this ideal diet. And my first thing was, what is an ideal diet?

Jim Hill:

What they did is they used two indices. One is the healthy eating index. And if people are interested in that, you can Google the healthy eating index and you can take it on your own on the web. And the other one was the American Heart Association 2020 diet score. So they took what people said they were eating, and then they looked at that on the basis of these two indices. And they rated in three levels, a poor diet quality and, intermediate diet quality and an ideal diet quality.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. So it's based on kind of those two metrics. So it's hard for us to, it's hard to say what that exactly means because it's really those two metrics combined. So that makes it a little bit harder to understand and apply, I think, to an individual.

Jim Hill:

So I think we're seeing a theme here that understanding what people's eating isn't simple. It's complex. It involves some self-reports. It involves some running it through some different databases. Again, big caveats, but we are going to talk about what we're seeing in the trends.

Holly Wyatt:

I think overall, this study, if we talk about the trends, we talked about kind of that ideal part. But one of the good things is they did report that what they, you know, kind of going in this poor diet category to 37%. So that's a pretty, you know, I'd say at least we're going in the right direction there.

Jim Hill:

So at the beginning, I guess, which was 1999, almost half the population was eating a poor diet.

Holly Wyatt:

Right.

Jim Hill:

And that went down a little, but still, that's a big number. That's a big number of eating an unhealthy diet.

Holly Wyatt:

So they're saying 37% in 2020 eating a poor diet, which has improved, but still, like you're saying, a lot of people eating this poor diet.

Jim Hill:

Okay. So let's talk about, was there any good news in this report?

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. I think that interesting ending that maybe is a highlight of some good news. It is reporting that Americans are drinking fewer sugary drinks and eating more whole grains, nuts, and seeds. And so that, I think is some direction maybe in the positive, especially that drinking fewer sugary drinks. What do you think, Jim? What did you see as improvement?

Jim Hill:

I think that's the one that stands out. And Holly, it's not too surprising because I think that's been the number one public health message about nutrition, which is reducing sugar. Okay. I'm all for it. I think the drop in sugary drinks is a good thing. I think people were consuming too many. But the other thing I will point out is it really hasn't moved the needle on obesity. What that says is we cannot expect to turn this around with one thing. Is reducing sugar-sweetened drinks a good thing? It's a wonderful thing. Is it the answer to obesity? It's one maybe small part of it, but it's not enough on its own. But I think we have to grasp good news where we can. That's a piece of good news.

Holly Wyatt:

Once again, it's an and. It's like, do this and we've got to do something else and we need to do something else. So it's part of the solution, but not the solution. But I wanted to ask you, Jim, why do you think this was occurring? I think it's one of the biggest changes we can see, a positive change, this decrease in the sugary drinks. But why? Do you think it's education? Do you think it's something like taxes on drinks? I mean, why do you think this is shifting for our nation?

Jim Hill:

Well, it's probably a little bit of all those, Holly. So number one, the message is out there everywhere. Another big part of it is you have alternatives. There are so many non-caloric sweetened beverages using non-caloric sweeteners. So literally, if the answer was to stop drinking sugary drinks and go and simply drink water, I don't think we would have been nearly successful. But what we have, I mean, you can go in the grocery store. You spend a lot of time, more time than I do in the grocery store. But there are so many alternative drinks that have a sweet taste, but low calorie. So I think it's a combination of educating people. They hear the message everywhere. They've got alternatives that aren't as dramatic as just going to water. The issue of the taxes is one that is a little bit controversial. My own reading of the whole thing is taxes haven't done that much. I think there are some groups that are a little sensitive to taxes. Bottom line is we don't know totally why it's gone down. Probably a combination of education, alternatives, and maybe taxes might have played a role.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. I think you make a great point on the alternatives. I think that is important. I always say, I think that the food companies will give us what we want. And if we say we want alternatives, drinks that don't have sugar in them, I think they're poised to come up with some great alternatives. And I think we have developed some better alternatives. There's some sodas now that actually have fiber in them. There's some sodas that are low sugar that are bringing in more nutrition that have been, you know, developed. So I think if the public wants things and that's something they really desire, then having those alternatives are really part of moving the needle.

Jim Hill:

[11:43] But there are two big issues here, Holly, that I want to bring up. One is the safety of the alternatives. We hear in the news all the time is these artificial sweeteners are causing cancer. They're terrible. Don't do it. Now, you and I have actually been supportive of these things, and we've actually done some research, not on the safety. I think the safety of these things, there's a ton of work done there. We actually see these as reasonable alternatives to the sugar-sweetened beverages. And so again, my sense is you're better off doing a diet soda than a sugar-sweetened soda. The second issue this brings up is you talked about all these products that are processed. So ultra-processing or processing is now seen as a bad thing. Is it all bad? Or are some of these products which putting fiber in a beverage is processing, is that a bad thing or a good thing?

Holly Wyatt:

I think it's like everything is so complex. I think when we throw and we say all processing or all processed foods are bad, we're not right. And then I think there are some processed foods that probably should be limited at least. So once again, we want this clear, easy, black, white, you know, right or wrong type situation when it's not that.

Jim Hill:

Yeah, I think we're confusing people a lot with this processing. I don't think it's the processing per se that's making foods unhealthy. It's the end result. So I think there are some processed foods which are good. And there are other processed foods which are bad, but I don't think it's the processing as much as the composition of how the food turns out after processing.

Holly Wyatt:

And I think this is a perfect example. So some of these new sodas that I've actually been using have put fiber. They have like nine grams of fiber. And fiber is a big thing now. We're saying we think that helps with so much, you know, we want a high fiber diet, so putting that in a drink, that could be a helpful thing, but you're right. You're processing the food, the drink.

Jim Hill:

Tough ones. Okay. We talked about some good things. What about the flip side? What's going wrong or what aren't we making progress on?

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. So I think the survey talked about that kind of on the flip side, that sodium's going up, our intake of sodium, salt is going up, saturated fat and processed foods. Once again, that's probably that term, but you have to define a little bit better. That hasn't improved very much. So while the sugar-sweetened beverages have improved and some of the other things like whole grains and nuts and seeds, these three things, sodium, saturated fat, and processed foods hasn't improved.

Jim Hill:

So Holly, I think people are really confused. Just this morning, driving into work, I heard a piece on oils, cooking oils. And now people are saying, don't take the seed oils, which is like avocado oil and so forth. Go back to animal oils, which is saturated fat, right? So we're confusing people out there. Should people be cooking with animal fats or should they be cooking with non-animal fats? And again, if you look at the data, the reason that we told people to switch from animal fats to some of these other types of fats is because of the saturated fat and its clear link with heart disease. Now I'm hearing on the news, people are being told to go back and eat animal fat. This is part of the problem with nutrition science is I think we confuse people maybe needlessly about these things.

Holly Wyatt:

I agree. If I'm confused, if you're confused, I mean, this is what we do and think about all the time. Can you imagine being out there and hearing being bombarded with all these different ideas? And it is confusing if it's confusing for us. So I think once again, like we talked about, I think when it comes to fat, I think about amount of fat. First and foremost, the amount of fat, eating a lower fat diet. And then you can try to get into the specific type of fat. But that's how I take it right now. But I have another question for you, Jim. Like similarly, like we talked about the sugary drinks that have improved, we've improved there. Why do you think these things, the sodium, the saturated fat, et cetera, are harder to move the needle? Haven't moved maybe or maybe make it more difficult to move?

Jim Hill:

Because I think there are foods we really like that contain those. And just with the sodas, we had so many really good alternatives. I'm not sure we have enough good alternatives there. So again, the message has been out there. It's hard not to see a message, at least until recently, saying reduce sodium, reduce saturated fat. Why hasn't that occurred? And again, we gave it out there for sodas and it did. So I don't think it's just the message. I think it's telling people to do it and giving them alternatives that are acceptable. You look at things that contain saturated fat and sodium. These are good tasting things. There are things we don't want to give up because, again, we know over and over the major determinants of what you eat are taste, cost, and convenience. Health comes in fourth.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. And so to me, it's about looking at alternatives that give foods the mouth feel of fat. We like that feeling when we eat it. It tastes good. It gives a food a certain feel to it almost, Jim. And so looking to be able to replace that. And then something we talk about all the time, can we use other spices to substitute for sodium? And it tastes just as good. It's got to be just as good almost or almost as good I really think for it to be an alternative that's going to stick.

Jim Hill:

People will take alternatives, but it's like the switch from a sugar-sweetened drink to water. That's too much of a jump for people. You've got to give them something a little closer to what they want.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah.

Jim Hill:

But Holly, you're talking about processing foods.

Holly Wyatt:

I know, Jim. I'm not, I don't think.

Jim Hill:

You can't get away from it.

Holly Wyatt:

I know, but we've done a whole show on spices.

Jim Hill:

Oh, no, I love spices. So much of the work that we've done is really to show how you can add spices, for example, to foods that are low in fat. And you bring their likability back to similarly to a whole fat version. So in other words, spices can be used to make healthier food more appealing to people. And I would love to see us do that more. We've shown you can do that for fat. You can do it a little bit for sugar. And you can do it to increase protein.

Holly Wyatt:

I definitely agree with that. That's the direction I would go if I was in control of the food supply.

Jim Hill:

One of the other areas that's coming up is this concept of getting away from processed foods to more whole foods. And again, one of the things that we always come out poorly on is fruits and vegetables, which are kind of more whole foods. And we have made very little progress in increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables over the years. How do we do that?

Holly Wyatt:

Tons of education. So it can't be education. I am not going to believe that it's people don't know.

Jim Hill:

Everybody, you stop somebody on the street and say what you should eat more of, and they'll say fruits and vegetables, but they're not doing it.

Holly Wyatt:

So why is that, Jim?

Jim Hill:

Again, is it that we don't have alternatives? Is it?

Holly Wyatt:

Well, we got a lot of veggies out there. There's a whole lot of veggies.

Jim Hill:

Again, if you look at some of the foods containing saturated fat, sugar, etc., we really like those. I'm not sure that we like vegetables, say fruits and vegetables, to that extent. I mean, we eat them, but it's not as if people are, oh my God, I'm just craving broccoli. I've got to have, you know, there's a difference there. It's harder to push that because we don't like them as much as we like some of the other food that's maybe high in sugar, salt and fat.

Holly Wyatt:

I agree with that. Although I've become where I do like it better, cooked certain ways, like the air fryer, I think has really helped me really like the taste of veggies better. I think another thing, though, is convenience. For me, it's not as convenient to eat vegetables as it is to eat some of, you know, these other foods that I can grab really quickly. So I think convenience plays a part, too.

Jim Hill:

So how do we, if you were king of the world here, how would you increase consumption of fruits and vegetables?

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. I mean, Jim, if I could do that, I would be. I would be czar. I'd be some kind of nutrition czar, I'm sure, because this is the question we've been trying to answer for years. But somehow or another, it's got to be about being able to make it convenient and taste good. And we haven't even brought up in this kind of concept of cost and if that's playing a role. But we've got to do all three. We know that vegetables are really good for you. And I think adding vegetables would help with the obesity part of this equation in my mind. But we haven't figured out how to make that where it's just as easy to eat veggies as it is to grab a bag of chips. That's what needs to happen.

Jim Hill:

Well, I don't think there's any question about the science of the importance of fruits and veggies. They're so important for health. They contain lots of substances that are important for human health that you wouldn't get if you didn't consume fruits and vegetables. So it's very important that we promote consumptions of them. But quite frankly, we get pretty much an F on our report card of how we've done on promoting fruits and vegetables. We really haven't moved the needle in decades of trying.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, I agree. And the other thing I wanted to bring up, because I definitely wanted to get your opinion on this. So if we've cut back on sugary drinks and we think that's a good thing, what do you think that's done to sugar overall? I mean, you know, that doesn't guarantee that sugar overall has gone down. It just says sugary drinks have gone down.

Jim Hill:

I think the data, and I'd have to look at this, Holly, but I think it has gone down a little bit. I think total sugar has gone down a little bit. And I think it's mostly the decline in sugary drinks that are driving that. End of the day, we like sugar. I mean, wonderful research showing that newborn babies like sugar. They can actually look at this. And sugar is a substance we're born liking. And so, again, we're going to get some sugar in our diet. I think what we're struggling to figure out is what's the right amount of sugar and what else do we eat? One of the actually, I think, positive moves that I'm seeing in the nutrition field is we're moving away from looking at individual foods to looking at the overall quality of the diet. So for years and years, we talked about individual foods. Do you put this food? Do you put veggies in? I think it's a good move that we're saying, let's evaluate our overall diet. And that diet can include lots of good stuff. It can include some treat foods on top of it. So rather than looking at individual foods, we need to look at the quality of the overall diet.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I think we are moving in that direction and thinking about it that way.

Holly Wyatt:

And that's, I think, a much better way for us to try to move forward. One more thing, Jim. So this study suggested that diet quality varied depending on whether the food came from a grocery store, a restaurant, or schools. Once again, now kind of bringing in the role of the environment to what we eat. And so let's talk a little bit about that. Because one thing I've been saying is I want to make vegetables convenient, taste good and convenient. Well, that's where to me the environment comes in. One of my pet peeves, and this happens all the time, I go to a restaurant and I want to order veggies. And the veggies either come out and they're in this tiny little portion and they don't taste that good. And I'm like, why is that the case? Why don't the restaurants serve vegetables on half of our plate instead of the way they do now?

Jim Hill:

Well, that's a good question. I've always been a fan of combining nutrition and culinary arts. Chefs know how to make things taste good. We know about nutrition and what people should eat, but you got to make it taste good for people to eat it. And it's a great question. Why aren't chefs being innovative with putting vegetables out there? It's just amazing. So you talk about, God, I went to this restaurant last night and the veggies were so wonderful. They would just melt in your mouth. Can chefs do this?

Holly Wyatt:

Right. Is that possible without adding a ton of butter and calories and things like that?

Jim Hill:

So the question is, can good tasting food be healthy?

Holly Wyatt:

I think it can. And don't you think the chefs should lead the way?

Jim Hill:

I think the chefs should lead the way. I'm sure there are tons of chefs listening to our podcast. So our challenge is, how do you do this? How do you get out in front and be innovative? Because I don't think there's much innovation out there. If you could go to a restaurant and have veggies that would just melt in your mouth, tasty, wouldn't you want to do that?

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, and you'd want to try to recreate them at home. I mean, why is it Dr. Holly in her kitchen with no skills trying to make veggies taste good? Like, why am I the one that's trying to move the needle on that? Why don't I have some of these chefs that know what to do or companies helping do this?

Jim Hill:

So we need some innovation. If we keep doing what we're doing, we're not going to move the needle on fruits and vegetables. I mean, come on. It's the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over. We need some innovation. So chefs out there, dieticians out there, get innovative, get creative. What about schools, Holly?

Holly Wyatt:

Well, schools, you're the expert on schools, but schools, if kids are there and you can at least feed them one meal and sometimes two meals there, that is in theory a place you could move the needle with kids. Now, this study wasn't about kids, but you could move the needle, I think.

Jim Hill:

I totally agree. You've got a chance to feed kids most of their daily intake, but let's look at how they're cooking, particularly fruits and vegetables. They are not cooking them in a way, or most schools, I hope there's some exceptions, they aren't cooking them in a way that you go to the school and you say, man, those green beans were just out of the world. You've got to have taste. Kids are driven by taste, too. You know, years ago, I was working with a colleague at the Mayo Clinic, Jim Levine if you remember Jim. And we envisioned the school of the future and the school of the future, the best lunch in town was at the school and you had chefs that provided lunch and parents would come in and pay for it because you were really, you were giving the best tasting food out in schools. We need some creativity there.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, we definitely do. And we should be able to get it. We should be able to get that.

Jim Hill:

Well, you know, we've talked about before our kids, if you really are concerned about reducing obesity, probably you would focus on the kids. And in a way, if we could take them from what, kindergarten through high school and make sure that they get healthy meals and also physical activity, and I want to come back and talk about that. But boy, we could go a long way between reducing obesity. After they leave high school, they can become obese and do other stuff. But we could totally, totally make sure they get good nutrition and physical activity through 12 years of school.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, I mean, that's the time when we do have some control. And so, yeah, I totally agree with you.

Jim Hill:

Let's end this conversation by physical activity, because you cannot evaluate nutrition without physical activity. And part of the problem is Americans are so sedentary that you have to limit your total intake to avoid gaining weight, which means now you've got to talk about less and less and less of these. If you're physically active, you'll have more leeway in your diet to bring in some of these more unhealthy or fun foods.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, I think what you're saying is the ideal diet changes based on your activity level. And so that's one thing when I hear the world ideal, I'm like ideal diet for someone who's sedentary? Or an ideal diet, are we evaluating an ideal diet for someone who is more active?

Jim Hill:

Well, I've said for years that the, do you think the very best diet for an elite athlete is the same diet as someone that's overweight and diabetic and hasn't got off the couch in years? No. And a great example is carbohydrate. Holly, I hear everybody saying, limit carbohydrate, limit carbohydrate. Do you know what elite athletes do? They fuel their body on carbohydrate. Carbohydrate is only a problem if you're not physically active. Carbohydrate is the fuel for physical activity. So yes, if you're not moving your body, you don't need very much carbohydrate. And carbohydrate becomes a problem. Once you move, carbohydrate is now your friend. Same way with lots of nutrients, saturated fat. The more you exercise, the more fat you burn. So that becomes less of an issue.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. And I think that's kind of the problem with even this whole survey, this whole grading system. My guess is if somebody was an athlete and talked about what they were eating, their diet would have not been viewed as ideal. It would have been viewed in the poor category, maybe.

Jim Hill:

[31:05] You look at the diet of an elite athlete, you wouldn't say that's a great diet because they're consuming a lot of calories. They're consuming a lot of fat. They're consuming a lot of carbohydrate. You're right. That's part of the problem. You cannot look at intake without also looking at output. it. So you can't evaluate nutrition without physical activity. But even that,

Jim Hill:

Holly, this is not good news. I mean, America does not have a good grade on nutrition.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, I agree. So I don't want to end on that. I got some listener questions.

Jim Hill:

You want to end on something positive?

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, we're going to end on something positive. But I wrote one question just for you, Jim. I've got this one going. I like this. If you could create a nutrition cheat sheet, what maybe are the top two or three even small changes that you would put on that list that can make a big impact? Like if you could change two or three things, what would you do?

Jim Hill:

So I, Holly, love the concept of energy density. And energy density is the number of calories per weight. So you take one of my favorite foods, baby carrots. They have a lot of volume and not very much intake. You take something like, I don't know, a pastry. A pastry has a lot of calories and not very much volume. So what you want to do is to look at foods that have volume, but very few calories. And that tends to be fruits and vegetables, vegetables that contain a lot of water. So I like watching energy density of foods. And you're going to naturally go for more fruits and vegetables.

Another one, and we haven't talked about it, that's a big one, I think is portion size. Lots of research show that the way that we serve food in this country is with large portions and it's natural when you have more on the plate you eat more. In other words the the visual thing is a cue for eating and oftentimes by the time you're full you've already overeaten. So energy density and portion size and one you and I always talk about and we hit on it a little before is don't consume calories and beverages. We found that with people in the National Weight Control Registry. They basically said, no way am I going to get calories and beverages. I like food too much. I'm getting all my calories and food. So those are three things that I would highlight.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. And I think mine are similar, but I would take them even one step further. This is what I'd put on my list. I would say, let's substitute for sugar, you know, sugary drinks. And that can be done many, many ways, but I would say if you're having a drink that everybody could take at least one sugar-filled drink and substitute it with something that does not have sugar in it. And then the other thing if I could just say here, let's everybody do this and I can't, but let's say I could. I would say let's put one serving of vegetables, specifically leafy greens. And I like the idea of leafy greens for a lot of the reasons you said, that energy density, it creates volume, all those kinds of things. Add leafy greens to at least one meal a day. So I would make those two changes. And just, I think that could maybe move the needle a little bit if everybody would do that.

Jim Hill:

And again, I like the idea of doing something small. Nobody's going to totally remake their diet overnight. If they do, they usually don't stick with it. Start making a few small changes.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, small changes, but not just one change. See, that's where people get in trouble. It's like one thing. No, it's not one thing. Let's make a couple, multiple small changes to try to move the needle.

Jim Hill:

And you got to move more on top of this too. If you're going to be completely sedentary, I'm sorry, but there's no diet that's going to keep you healthy.

Holly Wyatt:

Got it. Got it. All right. You ready for some listener questions around this topic I thought would fit?

Jim Hill:

Let's go for it.

Holly Wyatt:

One listener question. If you could ban, and you know, I don't like that term ban, but if you could ban one food from the American diet, what would it be?

Jim Hill:

All right. I don't like this question.

Holly Wyatt:

I know, but I can't help it, Jim. This is what they want to know.

Jim Hill:

I know. To me, it's the concept of the whole diet. All foods can fit, but they have to fit in the right way. So you look at, I don't know, you look at some of these foods that are seen as really, really bad. Don't eat these. Well, it's a matter of you don't eat them every day. You can eat them occasionally. So I don't like the idea of banning anything. I like the idea of focusing more on a whole diet. You probably have an answer to this, Holly.

Holly Wyatt:

Well, I mean, you're just sidestepping the question, but, you know, I mean, they want an answer.

Jim Hill:

All right. Give them an answer.

Holly Wyatt:

So if I had to, and I agree with you, I don't think we should ban anything. I don't think that works. But I would ban sugar-sweetened beverages. I would. If I had to. I'm not saying that, but that to me, I think, would give the biggest bang for your buck.

Jim Hill:

Okay.

Holly Wyatt:

So next question. What's one junk food that actually isn't as bad as people think? So now you're going to like this one a little bit better, I think, right? What's one thing that we maybe think we should ban but isn't really that bad? And I've got a good one for this.

Jim Hill:

You take that one first.

Holly Wyatt:

So I think popcorn. Now you can fix popcorn and it can be like the movie popcorn with butter and all that. But you can air pop it. You can do other things. And so I think popcorn can get a bad rap. But it can be actually a junk food that you can fix in a way that still tastes good, but isn't really a junk food, can actually be healthy. What do you think?

Jim Hill:

I don't have... I like that one. I don't have a good answer of that. I like... Well, I don't have a good answer, Holly.

Holly Wyatt:

Well, here's another one. Here's another one. I think about this stuff all the time. This is why this is easy for me because I have to eat these foods and I don't want them to be junk food. I think dark chocolate, right? A lot of times people think of chocolate.

Jim Hill:

Oh, that's a good one.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. A junk food, but you can eat dark chocolate and maybe it's not quite as bad as you think. Now, if you eat, you know.

Jim Hill:

[37:25] Yeah, yeah. No, there's some good evidence that there's some benefits of dark chocolate. So that's a good one.

Holly Wyatt:

All right. Do you have any more listener questions that we should do?

Jim Hill:

Why does healthy food always seem more expensive than processed food?

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, we get that question a lot. Oh, I don't know. I think there's a lot of couple reasons. I think a big one may be that there's a longer shelf life. Kind of the processed foods, you can make them and they sit on a shelf for a long period of time, which makes them more, you know, you can charge less for them because you don't have as much waste. It's easier for that standpoint. A lot of people talk about government subsidies, so that government subsidies tend to favor processed foods like corn and wheat. And then I also think that's a little bit of a misconception. I don't know when we really look at it how much cheaper they really are. But those three things I think I would say might be a reason.

Jim Hill:

Well, one of the things is oftentimes what you're paying for is the fact somebody else is preparing it. So oftentimes if you want to do it at home, you can do it cheaper at home, but you have to put in the work of doing it. So I don't think that healthy has to be necessarily more expensive. It might take a little bit more effort on your time and preparation. The bottom line is I think you can find a healthy diet. Whatever your income level is, you can find something that works for you. May have to put a little bit more effort in it.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, that's true. That's very, very true.

Jim Hill:

All right. Are we ready for takeaways?

Holly Wyatt:

Well, I've got a vulnerability question for you.

Jim Hill:

Oh, no.

Holly Wyatt:

I know. And you don't even know what this is. I just came up with it. Yeah. No, these are good. These are good. So what's one bad food habit? And once again, bad, I'm putting that in quotation marks, but what's one undesirable food habit you struggle with that maybe, even though you know better, but you still eat it or you still struggle with it?

Jim Hill:

Well, I like sort of baked goods, sweet baked goods, pastry and so forth. I don't eat it very often, but like, you know, sweet, you know, in France, the croissants and they go in a bakery and all this stuff that's just sweet, fat, baked goods. Oh, I could eat a lot of it. So I have to watch myself around those kinds of products.

Holly Wyatt:

Sounds like you like a sugar-fat mix.

Jim Hill:

I do.

Holly Wyatt:

Put those two together.

Jim Hill:

I think everybody does, but yes. And you bake it and it's just like, this is great. What about you?

Holly Wyatt:

Oh, you know what mine is. We talk about it all the time. Chips. Oh my gosh, chips. And even though chips a lot of times may have corn or potato as their base, the way they're cooked and made is not very healthy, although there are becoming some healthier options. So I'm still waiting though, but definitely would be chips.

Jim Hill:

Chips, I can take or leave. No biggie. All right. This study gave us a snapshot of how we're eating in America. And the big picture is not great. We've made some progress, but as a country, we're not eating very healthy. Almost nobody's getting an A plus. But the choices we make every day matters. What we eat fuels everything, our energy, our health, and our future, and we can do better. And so maybe even thinking about doing those few small changes to start could make a difference.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, I agree with that. And I also think a takeaway is that we've made some progress, and I think that's good, but I don't think it's enough. I think we need to continue to really push this envelope that we need to do more.

Jim Hill:

We've made some good progress. We drink fewer sugary drinks and more whole grains. So those are steps in the right direction. But less than 2% of us, Holly, eat what's considered an ideal diet. Food access and income matter. Those with less financial stability struggle to improve their diet. We need to make sure that everybody has better access to healthy foods. Where food comes from makes a difference. Diet quality in general is better at home, but boy, there's so much need for innovations in restaurant foods and school foods. So there you have it, Holly, America's Report Card. Some progress, some setbacks, but definitely room for improvement. And since it's National Nutrition Month, now's the perfect time to take a look at how you're fueling your body. If you learned something new today, share this episode with a friend and keep the conversation going.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, I agree with that. Share it with a friend and think about your own diet. I think this is the perfect opportunity to think about what small changes you can make that could make a difference in your life.

Jim Hill:

We'll see you next time on Weight Loss And. Bye.

Holly Wyatt:

Bye, everybody.

Jim Hill:

And that's a wrap for today's episode of Weight Loss And. We hope you enjoy diving into the world of weight loss with us.

Holly Wyatt:

If you want to stay connected and continue exploring the “Ands” of weight loss, be sure to follow our podcast on your favorite platform.

Jim Hill:

We'd also love to hear from you. Share your thoughts, questions, or topic suggestions by reaching out at [weightlossand.com](http://weightlossand.com/). Your feedback helps us tailor future episodes to your needs.

Holly Wyatt:

And remember, the journey doesn't end here. Keep applying the knowledge and strategies you've learned and embrace the power of the “And” in your own weight loss journey.