Your Diet Sucks

Епизоди

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  Diet Culture & Pyramid Schemes: MLMs, Herbalife, and the Vitamin That Started It All 16.09.2026 1ч 33мин

  Multi-level marketing was invented to sell vitamins. Not adjacent to vitamins, not eventually pivoted to vitamins: the first MLM in America was a 1945 alfalfa-pill company that got raided by the FDA within two years, and everything since (Amway, Herbalife, the friend from high school who wants you to try a shake) is running the same play. In this episode, Zoë and Kylee trace how diet culture and direct selling grew up as one machine: the Nutrilite origin story, why supplements are the perfect MLM product, Herbalife's unmarked nutrition clubs and the mystery of why the shake tastes better in the store than at home, the billionaire slap fight that ended in a $200 million FTC settlement, and what the independent numbers say about who actually makes money (almost no one). Plus: Betsy DeVos's grandfather, the Tupperware party as feminist history, and why "boss babe" is doing unpaid PR for a system built to move money out of women's pockets.If you got pulled in, or watched someone you love get pulled in, the math was rigged before anyone signed up. That's the whole point.Full transcript, references, and research at yourdietsuckspodcast.com.Support Your Diet Sucks on Patreon for monthly bonus episodes, weekly nutrition question threads with Kylee, members-only recipes and posts, and the archive: patreon.com/YourDietSucksThis episode is supported by:rabbit: our title sponsor and the run apparel we actually wear. Use code SUMMERSNACKS10 for 10% off at runinrabbit.comTailwind Nutrition: endurance fuel and hydration that won't wreck your gut. Use code YOURDIET20 for 20% off at tailwindnutrition.comMicrocosm Coaching: evidence-based run coaching from humans, not algorithms. Book a free consultation at microcosm-coaching.com
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  Is It Actually Your Cortisol? Cortisol Belly, Cortisol Face, and the Billion-Dollar Business of Blaming a Hormone 02.09.2026 1ч 14мин

  Support us on Patreon! Somewhere in the last few years, cortisol became the answer to everything. Tired? Cortisol. Puffy? Cortisol. Gained weight, lost sleep, can't stop scrolling? Cortisol. A hormone you would die without got recast as the thing wrecking your face, and a $4.8 billion supplement economy showed up to fix it. This episode asks how that happened, and whether any of it is new.It isn't. Zoë traces the lineage: Hans Selye, the self-described father of stress, who built the modern idea of stress from rat experiments in the 1930s and then quietly took tobacco industry money for decades while his research was used in court to argue that stress, not cigarettes, was making people sick. Then the 1998 arrival of "adrenal fatigue," a diagnosis coined by a naturopath in a self-published book, dismissed by the Endocrine Society, and treated with ground-up cow adrenal glands that are still on Amazon today. Cortisol panic is adrenal fatigue with a real hormone bolted on.Kylee handles the real hormone. What the HPA axis actually does, why the morning spike is a sign your system works, why a cortisone shot and "the stress hormone" are the same molecule, and what a proper cortisol test looks like versus a $500 saliva kit with poor day-to-day reliability. We take on cortisol face (the clinical version is Cushing's, and you'd know), cortisol belly (the mechanism is real at pathological levels and unsupported for a stressed person with a normal curve), and the cortisol cocktail (orange juice and salt, which is an electrolyte drink in a wine glass).For athletes, the internet has it backwards. A hard workout can briefly push cortisol into Cushing's range, then it's gone in hours. Real overtraining blunts the stress response rather than flooding it, and under-fueling raises baseline cortisol because your body reads a chronic deficit as an ongoing threat. Skipping intensity to protect your hormones protects nothing.If cortisol is where a structural problem gets relocated onto an individual body, the gummy can't fix the job, the rent, or the toddler. Sleep, carbohydrates, and recovery still can.rabbit: our title sponsor and the run apparel we actually wear. Use code SUMMERSNACKS10 for 10% off at runinrabbit.comgoodr: $25 polarized sunglasses that don't bounce, don't slip, and don't cost a race entry. Use code YDS at goodr.com/YDS for $10 off. Tailwind Nutrition: endurance fuel and hydration that won't wreck your gut. Use code YOURDIET20 for 20% off at tailwindnutrition.comMicrocosm Coaching: evidence-based run coaching from humans, not algorithms. Book a consultation at microcosm-coaching.com
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  Are You Addicted to Exercise? 19.08.2026 1ч 15мин

  Support the show at Patreon.com/yourdietsucks"No days off" is a slogan, a t-shirt, and a diagnostic criterion, depending on who's reading it.This week: exercise addiction. Whether it's real, whether "addiction" is even the right word, and why the whole concept was popularized by a psychiatrist who also thought clinical depression was a choice you could simply make differently.We trace it from a 1970 sleep study that fell apart because the researcher couldn't find enough people willing to stop exercising for thirty days, to the 1976 book that told a generation being hooked on running was a personality upgrade, to the 1983 paper that could only make men's version legible by borrowing the vocabulary of anorexia.Plus: what the prevalence research actually shows, why the brain-imaging literature fits in a three-ring binder, and four ways to tell dedication from compulsion that have nothing to do with your weekly mileage.SponsorsThis episode is brought to you by rabbit, whose new women's collection is built for people who actually run in it. ⁠runinrabbit.com/collections/womens-new⁠, code SUMMERSNACKS10 for 10% off.Tailwind Nutrition got us through this one. ⁠tailwindnutrition.com⁠, code YOURDIET20 for 20% off.Microcosm Coaching works with athletes who want to train and fuel without the shame spiral. ⁠microcosm-coaching.com⁠LinksEvery episode and full transcripts: ⁠yourdietsuckspodcast.com/your-diet-sucks-podcast⁠Bonus episodes, Kylee's weekly nutrition question thread, and a group chat that will never try to sell you a binder: ⁠patreon.com/YourDietSucks⁠
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  Why Is Everyone Scared of Microplastics? 05.08.2026 1ч 15мин

  Support the show at Patreon.com/yourdietsucksThere is no plastic spoon in your brain (unless you put one there). There is no credit card in your diet. We regret to inform you that this does not mean everything is fine.Both of those numbers came from real studies, and both got mangled somewhere between the paper and your feed. Kylee walks through what actually survives scrutiny, where the fertility conversation outruns its evidence, and why the BPA-free sticker on your Nalgene is not the reassurance you think it is.Zoë traces the whole mess from exploding celluloid billiard balls to Life magazine throwing a party for disposability in 1955. We get into why humans are catastrophically bad at judging exactly this kind of risk, how much you should actually be thinking about it, and the one exposure source that matters more than anything in your kitchen drawer.Nobody needs to panic about their hydration strategy. Maybe buy new spatulas. Definitely don't buy the $300 filter from the guy who could be regulating this instead.SponsorsThis episode is brought to you by rabbit, whose new women's collection is built for people who actually run in it. runinrabbit.com/collections/womens-new, code SUMMERSNACKS10 for 10% off.Tailwind Nutrition got us through this one. tailwindnutrition.com, code YOURDIET20 for 20% off.Microcosm Coaching works with athletes who want to train and fuel without the shame spiral. microcosm-coaching.comLinksEvery episode and full transcripts: yourdietsuckspodcast.com/your-diet-sucks-podcastBonus episodes, Kylee's weekly nutrition question thread, and a group chat that will never try to sell you a binder: patreon.com/YourDietSucks
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  Why is Everyone Using Peptides? 22.07.2026 1ч 9мин

  BPC-157. TB-500. MOTs-C. If those sound like droids from a Star Wars spinoff, congratulations on your healthy relationship with the internet. For everyone else: peptides are the injectable wellness trend that jumped from bodybuilding forums to med spas to your feed, promoted for healing, muscle, fat loss, and living forever. But what does the science say, and what are peptides, actually?Some of them became legitimate blockbuster drugs: insulin is a peptide, and so are the GLP-1s. But the ones flooding your feed never went through human trials. They went from lab animal studies straight to "research chemical" websites, and from there to longevity clinics charging four figures for injections of compounds nobody has proven do anything in people.This week, Zoë traces how we got from insulin to Instagram: the bodybuilding underground, the anti-aging clinics, and the influencer economy that turned unproven injectables into a billion-dollar category. Kylee breaks down what the research actually shows for the big-name peptides, why "thousands of patients swear by it" is not evidence, and what she tells athletes who ask whether BPC-157 will fix their tendons faster. Plus: what to know about anything sold in a vial labeled "for research purposes only."rabbit: our title sponsor and the run apparel we actually wear. Use code SUMMERSNACKS10 for 10% off at runinrabbit.comTailwind Nutrition: endurance fuel and hydration that won't wreck your gut. Use code YOURDIET20 for 20% off at tailwindnutrition.comOsmia: small-batch skincare made by a former ER doctor. Use code YDS20 for 20% off at osmiaskincare.comMicrocosm Coaching: evidence-based run coaching from humans, not algorithms. microcosm-coaching.com
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  The Keto Diet 08.07.2026 1ч 31мин

  Support us on Patreon!Keto promised something no other diet could: cut the carbs, flip a metabolic switch, and burn fat without counting a single calorie. A magic loophole in human physiology. So does it actually work?This week we trace keto from a deaf Victorian undertaker who accidentally invented the first diet book, to a 1920s epilepsy clinic that turned fasting into medicine, to the bankrupt Atkins empire, to the shirtless guys on TikTok insisting grains ruined their lives. Then we get into the science: what ketosis actually is, why the carb-insulin hypothesis doesn't survive a metabolic ward, what Kevin Hall's lockdown studies really found, and why you should treat "it worked for me" with a grain of ketogenic salt.We also get specific about athletes: what fat adaptation can and can't do and who might genuinely benefit from a low-carb approach versus who's just going to get slower and crankier (Zoë, for sure).rabbit: 10% off with code SUMMERSNACKS10 at runinrabbit.comTailwind Nutrition: 20% off with code YOURDIET20 at tailwindnutrition.comOsmia Skincare: 20% off with code YDS20 at osmiaskincare.comMicrocosm Coaching: work with a real human coach at every level at microcosm-coaching.com
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  Are Seed Oils Actually Bad For You? 24.06.2026 1ч 9мин

  Join our Patreon!This is the most requested episode in two years, and the one strangers corner Zoë about the second they find out she hosts a nutrition podcast. Seed oils. Did they secretly poison the country, or did the internet just find a new villain with a great backstory?We go claim by claim through the anti-seed-oil case. The omega-6 inflammation pathway. The omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, which turns out to matter more for some people than the internet's loudest voices would ever admit. Oxidation when you heat polyunsaturated fat. And the chart that maps seed oil consumption onto every chronic disease in America.Zoë and Kylee dive into how a cooking fat became a one-word loyalty test that Mobile, Alabama and Marin County somehow agree on. RFK Jr. is out there RFK-ing the fries. Sweetgreen ran a seed-oil-free menu. And every influencer swearing canola oil is killing you has a thirty-dollar meat stick to sell you. rabbit: Our title sponsor, and the kit we actually run in. Shop the latest at runinrabbit.com with code JUNEFOOD10 for 10% off.Osmia: Skincare that survives the same scrutiny we apply to everything else. Code YDS20 at osmiaskincare.com.Tailwind Nutrition: Fuel and electrolytes for long days out. Code YOURDIET20 at tailwindnutrition.com.Microcosm Coaching: Coaching that meets you where you are, at microcosm-coaching.com.WIUAl7uwQgh4J6imCoLv
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  Why Am I So Hungry? 10.06.2026 1ч 26мин

  You were taught that hunger is a trick question. Before you're allowed to eat, you have to clear the suspects: you're bored, you're thirsty, you're emotional, you're just not disciplined enough. Somewhere at the bottom of that list, if it makes the list at all, sits the radical possibility that you might simply need food.This episode is about where that interrogation came from and why most of it is nonsense. Hunger isn't one thing. It's three or four separate biological systems wearing a single word, and the cultural reflex to distrust all of them runs about 800 years deep. We go from fasting saints starving themselves toward God, to a Columbia psychologist in the 1960s who built a whole career on the idea that some people's hunger was simply broken. The belief refused to die, and you can still hear it in every diet app, every set of smaller plates, every stranger telling you to drink more water and wait for the feeling to pass.Plus why some of us really do run hungrier than the people around us, and what quietly moves the signal. By the end, the question stops being "am I actually hungry" and turns into something more useful: who convinced you that you shouldn't be?LinksNew episodes every other Wednesday at yourdietsuckspodcast.com. Come hang out on Patreon for Kylee's weekly nutrition Q&A, bonus episodes, and the group chat: patreon.com/YourDietSucksBrought to you by:rabbit: code JUNEFOOD10 for 10% off at runinrabbit.com/collections/womens-newTailwind Nutrition: code YOURDIET20 for 20% off at tailwindnutrition.comOsmia: code YDS20 for 20% off at osmiaskincare.comMicrocosm Coaching: microcosm-coaching.com
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  Are Artificial Sweeteners Actually Bad For You? 27.05.2026 1ч 25мин

  In 1879, a chemist named Constantin Fahlberg sat down to dinner without washing his hands after a day spent handling coal tar. His bread tasted strangely sweet. So he went back to the lab and started tasting everything on his bench until he found the source. That was saccharin, the first artificial sweetener, discovered because a man would not wash his hands before dinner. Nearly 150 years later, we are still arguing about whether the stuff is going to kill us.This week, Zoë and Kylee dig into the question every diet-soda lover has had to defend at a gas station: are artificial sweeteners actually bad for you? They trace how a coal-tar accident became a billion-dollar industry, why the WHO's "possibly carcinogenic" label on aspartame puts it in the same risk tier as pickled vegetables and working as a carpenter, and how Donald Rumsfeld personally muscled aspartame through the FDA. The saccharin cancer scare that haunted a generation came from male rats dosed with the equivalent of hundreds of sodas a day, through a mechanism human bodies do not even have.Along the way: the wartime rationing that built the sweetener industry, the cyclamate the US banned and never reinstated while the rest of the world kept drinking it, the every-fifteen-years villain cycle that has run through fat, high-fructose corn syrup, gluten, and seed oils, the genuinely fascinating Suez microbiome research where scientists grew human gut bacteria in mice, the stevia-in-a-petri-dish problem, and the erythritol heart-attack headline that fell apart the moment anyone read the study.Plus: why these things were always sold to women as a permission structure, the one category athletes actually need to watch (sugar alcohols, and the osmotic chaos they bring to a long run), the client drinking ten Liquid IVs a day, and a hot-takes round that settles Diet Coke versus Coke Zero once and for all.Listen for the full story.This episode is brought to you by:rabbit: Built by runners, for runners. Shop the women's collection at runinrabbit.com. Use code YDSMAY10 for 10% off, new code each month, check most recent show notes for updates. Tailwind Nutrition: Real fuel that actually works for endurance athletes. Shop at tailwindnutrition.com and use code YOURDIET20 for 20% off.Osmia: Simple, evidence-based skincare from a real doctor (and one of the few wellness brands we actually trust). Shop at osmiaskincare.com and use code YDS20 for 20% off.Microcosm Coaching: Human-first coaching for athletes of every level and every sport. Come to our virtual open house on June 11 at 5:30 MT. Register with this link or at microcosm-coaching.com.Want more? Join us on Patreon at patreon.com/YourDietSucks for weekly nutrition Q&As with Kylee, bonus deep dives, and community discussions on the topics that are too niche or too spicy for the main feed.Grab merch at teepublic.com/user/your-diet-sucks.Resources, citations, and studies discussed in this episode are available at yourdietsuckspodcast.com.
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  Should You Count Calories? The Wild History and Questionable Science Behind Calorie Counting 13.05.2026 1ч 29мин

  Should you count calories? A century ago, a Los Angeles doctor named Lulu Hunt Peters sold two million copies of a book that taught American women to count calories as a patriotic duty during WWI. She invented the 100-calorie snack pack. She set the 1,200-calorie floor that still haunts diet apps in 2026. The framework she popularized is still running your relationship with food.This week, Zoë and Kylee dig into the question every active person has wondered about: should you be counting calories? They trace how a unit of heat invented to measure factory worker rations became the dominant logic of American eating. Where the 2,000-calorie label on every food package actually came from (it isn't science, it's a 1990 design choice). Why calorie counting is legally allowed to be 20 percent wrong before it ever reaches your plate. And why a framework with this many cracks has held on for a hundred years.Along the way: what calorie counting did to the American food supply during the low-fat era, what the Biggest Loser metabolic adaptation research actually showed, why even registered dietitians can't accurately track their own intake, what set point theory says about why restriction backfires, and whether calorie tracking apps are tools, traps, or both. For athletes, the questions that actually matter for performance, and what the research says about who calorie counting helps and who it harms.Plus: the early feminist origins of dieting (yes, really), why your microbiome is doing math your app can't see, and why this number keeps its grip on us even when the science says it shouldn't.Listen for the full story.This episode is brought to you by:rabbit — Built by runners, for runners. Shop the women's collection at runinrabbit.com/collections/womens-new. Use code YDSMAY10 for 10% off.Tailwind Nutrition — Real fuel that actually works for endurance athletes. Shop at tailwindnutrition.com and use code YOURDIET20 for 20% off.Osmia — Clean, evidence-based skincare from a real doctor (and one of the few wellness brands we actually trust). Shop at osmiaskincare.com and use code YDS20 for 20% off.Microcosm Coaching — Endurance coaching that meets you where you are. Book a free consultation call at microcosm-coaching.com.Want more? Join us on Patreon at patreon.com/YourDietSucks for weekly nutrition Q&As with Kylee, bonus deep dives, and community discussions on the topics that are too niche or too spicy for the main feed.Grab merch at teepublic.com/user/your-diet-sucks.Resources, citations, and studies discussed in this episode are available at yourdietsuckspodcast.com.
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  Food Allergies, Intolerances, and Sensitivity Tests 29.04.2026 1ч 21мин

  This week, Zoë mailed a chunk of her hair to a stranger in Florida. For science. For journalism. For your benefit, really. The $60 hair sample test came back flagging her as "highly reactive" to 210 foods, including emu, ostrich egg, hot dog, and ground horse meat. Reader, she has not eaten ground horse meat in over a decade.The food sensitivity industry is a multi-billion-dollar grift built on real symptoms and fake frameworks. We trace it from 1906, when allergy was first defined as a real clinical thing, through the 1950s clinical ecology movement, through cytotoxic testing, IgG panels, electrodermal screening, and bio-resonance, and finally to the at-home hair test in your DMs. It's the same idea in different packaging every decade. Like a body-snatcher, but for grift. (We use a lot of John Carpenter references in this one.)Then Kylee walks through what the science actually says: the difference between IgE allergies, IgG sensitivities, and intolerances. What real diagnostic testing looks like (skin prick tests, blood panels, hydrogen breath tests, structured elimination diets with a professional). Why hair testing, IgG panels, and bio-resonance devices have no validated diagnostic mechanism. And why these tests disproportionately target women, who are statistically more likely to feel dismissed by their doctors and more likely to seek answers in the wellness market.We also get into why endurance athletes are uniquely vulnerable to this stuff. When your gut acts up during training, the wellness industry hands you a list of 210 foods to eliminate. Your sports dietitian hands you a fueling plan. Guess which one tends to lead to a stress fracture.The bottom line: your symptoms deserve a real answer. Don't let a hair test substitute for actual care.This episode is supported by:rabbit — Use code YOURDIETSUCKS10 for 10% off at runinrabbit.com Their trail line is genuinely the only running gear we actively look forward to wearing.Tailwind Nutrition — Use code YOURDIET20 for 20% off at tailwindnutrition.com. Endurance fuel that doesn't taste like a chemistry set. Try the Mandarin Orange or the Daily Hydration Strawberry Lemonade.Osmia Skincare — Use code YDS20 for 20% off at osmiaskincare.com. Clean, science-forward skincare from a real-deal physician-founder. The Himalayan Salt Scrub and Lavender Body Mousse are the post-long-run reset.Microcosm Coaching — Endurance coaching from people who know what they're doing. Free consultations at microcosm-coaching.com.Website: yourdietsuckspodcast.com — full episode pages, references, transcripts, and the blog.Patreon: patreon.com/YourDietSucks — bonus episodes, monthly Q&As with Kylee, and the community thread. $3/month keeps us independent and ad-manager-free.Merch: teepublic.com/user/your-diet-sucks — TeePublic shop. (Heads up: free Patreon members can win a YDS shirt by joining a paid tier between now and May 31. Drawing June 1.)If this episode helped, send it to a friend who's been thinking about mailing their hair somewhere. Word of mouth is how this show grows.SPONSORSMORE YDS
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  Is Natural Food Actually Healthier? 15.04.2026 1ч 23мин

  In 1997, a 14-year-old named Nathan Zahner convinced 43 out of 50 classmates to sign a petition banning a dangerous chemical called dihydrogen monoxide. The chemical was water. This episode is everything that happened next, scaled up to a $50 billion industry and, eventually, federal food policy.Zoë and Kylee trace the naturalistic fallacy: the assumption that natural equals good and artificial equals bad. It's the implicit logic behind clean eating, anti-GMO panic, supplement marketing, anti-vaccine rhetoric, and a significant chunk of sports nutrition culture. This episode follows that logic from Sylvester Graham's Victorian theories about white flour and masturbation, through John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium, through the Make America Healthy Again commission's 2025 decision to replace heavily regulated synthetic dyes with natural alternatives that are, it turns out, subject to less FDA oversight than the dyes they replaced. Botulinum toxin is completely natural. Synthetic folic acid has prevented hundreds of thousands of neural tube defects. Nature is not a wellness coach. Your mitochondria are not reading the label.FREE T-SHIRT GIVEAWAY — ends April 19thTwo ways to enter: leave a review on Apple Podcasts and DM us a screenshot on Instagram @yourdietsuckspodcast, or share any episode to your Instagram stories and tag us. Do both for two entries. Winner announced Saturday April 19th. US residents only.SUPPORT THE SHOW: Join the Patreon at patreon.com/YourDietSucks — bonus episodes, Kylee's Q&As, Zoë's monthly blog, and a community of people who find this stuff as interesting as you do. Starting at $3/month.Merch at teepublic.com/user/your-diet-sucks.THIS EPISODE IS SUPPORTED BYrabbit — 10% off at runinrabbit.com/collections/womens-new with code YOURDIETSUCKS10Tailwind Nutrition — 20% off at tailwindnutrition.com with code YOURDIET20Osmia — 20% off at osmiaskincare.com with code YDS20Microcosm Coaching — Free consultation at microcosm-coaching.com
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  The Caffeine Episode 01.04.2026 1ч 24мин

  Find full episode transcripts, show notes, and research at yourdietsuckspodcast.com. Grab merch at teepublic.com/user/your-diet-sucks. And if you want bonus episodes, early access, and our eternal gratitude, support us on Patreon at patreon.com/YourDietSucks.Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance on earth — and somehow it's still got two extremely loud camps screaming past each other. On one side: the wellness-bro "caffeine destroys your adrenals, drink my mushroom latte" crowd. On the other: the guy on TikTok who takes 800 milligrams a day and wants you to up your dose. Both of them are wrong. Both of them are extremely entertaining.In this episode, Zoë and Kylee dig into how caffeine actually works, the adenosine receptor science, the performance research, the optimal dosing for endurance athletes, and what it's actually doing to your sleep, hormones, and anxiety levels (spoiler: more than you think, less than the fear-mongers claim). They trace the history of human caffeine consumption from ancient China to Sufi monks using coffee as a pre-workout for night prayer, through the Enlightenment coffee houses that accidentally invented capitalism, all the way to a 300-milligram neon energy drink with a skull on it. There's also a full breakdown of the pre-workout industry's stimulant escalation problem, why adrenal fatigue isn't a real diagnosis, how your menstrual cycle affects caffeine metabolism, and whether the caffeine taper before a race is actually worth the two weeks of misery. Plus: the 1904 Olympic Marathon featured rat poison, brandy, and a man who hitched a ride in a car for 11 miles. Dry scooping sent multiple people to the hospital. And "energy is a choice" is not a peer-reviewed finding.We cover it all.This episode is supported by rabbit — use code YOURDIETSUCKS10 at runinrabbit.com/collections/womens-new for a discount on their trail line. By Osmia Skincare — use code YDS20 at osmiaskincare.com for 20% off. By Tailwind Nutrition at tailwindnutrition.com. And by Microcosm Coaching at microcosm-coaching.com.
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  God, Guilt, and the Gospel of Clean Eating 18.03.2026 1ч 20мин

  Get "Carb Slut" and "Petty and Scientifically Literate" merch here!Check out our website for references, transcripts, and more!Diet culture is really good at one thing: finding the places people go to belong, and nesting inside them. This episode follows that instinct back to one of its oldest sources, the American evangelical church. Zoë and Kylee are joined by Leslie Schilling, RDN, CSSD, sports dietitian, eating disorder specialist, and author of Feed Yourself, to trace how food, bodies, and spiritual worthiness got so tangled together, and what it costs the people caught inside that tangle. From Pope Gregory's taxonomy of gluttony in the sixth century to Rick Warren's Daniel Plan weigh-ins, "your body is a temple" taken wildly out of context, and why eating disorders tied to religious identity are among the hardest to treat. You don't have to have ever set foot in a church to have received this transmission.Support Your Diet Sucks on Patreon for bonus episodes, weekly threads, recipes, and AMA access: patreon.com/yourdietsucks.This episode is brought to you by rabbit — use code YDSMARCH10 for 10% off at rabbit.com. Osmia Skincare — code YDS20 for 20% off at osmiaskincare.com. Tailwind Nutrition — code YOURDIET20 for 20% off at tailwindnutrition.com. And Microcosm Coaching — book a free consultation at microcosm-coaching.com.
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  How Whole30 Became a Diet Empire Without a Single Study 04.03.2026 1ч 21мин

  Get "Carb Slut" and "Petty and Scientifically Literate" merch here!Whole30 has sold millions of books, built a coaching empire, and partnered with Chipotle and Walmart — all without a single peer-reviewed clinical trial. In this episode, Zoë traces the program from its origin on a CrossFit blog in 2009 to its multi-million dollar licensing ecosystem, digs into the loaded vocabulary (sugar dragons, tiger blood, sex with your pants on), and examines what happened when a nutrition science student fact-checked all 450 citations in It Starts With Food. Kylee breaks down how real elimination diets work, why this one poses specific risks for athletes, and what the plant-based Whole30 contradiction reveals about whether the rules were ever based on science at all.Support Your Diet Sucks on Patreon for bonus episodes, weekly threads, recipes, and AMA access: patreon.com/yourdietsucks.This episode is brought to you by rabbit — use code YDSMARCH10 for 10% off at rabbit.com. Osmia Skincare — code YDS20 for 20% off at osmiaskincare.com. Tailwind Nutrition — code YOURDIET20 for 20% off at tailwindnutrition.com. And Microcosm Coaching — book a free consultation at microcosm-coaching.com.
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  Does Intermittent Fasting Actually Do Anything? 18.02.2026 1ч 21мин

  Intermittent fasting is the most Googled diet-related term on the planet, except everyone who does it will tell you it's not a diet. It's a protocol. An eating window. A lifestyle. An optimization hack. Definitely, absolutely, under no circumstances a diet. You just don't eat for sixteen hours. Totally different.In this episode, we trace IF from ancient religious fasting traditions through its secularization and commodification, afrom Martin Berkhan's Leangains forum and its tagline ("fuck breakfast") to Michael Mosley's BBC documentary, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine physique, and Jack Dorsey describing his weekend-long fasts as "hallucinating" like that's a selling point. We walk through how a Nobel Prize in yeast biology became a justification for skipping breakfast, why Jason Fung's The Obesity Code scored 31% on scientific accuracy and still became the IF bible, and how the fasting app market turned one simple rule into a multimillion-dollar industry.Then we get into what the science actually says. We break down the claimed mechanisms — metabolic switching, autophagy, insulin sensitivity — and look honestly at where the evidence lands. Spoiler: the mechanisms are real, but the confidence far outpaces the human data. The first direct measurement of autophagy in humans was published in 2025. Mouse metabolism runs seven times faster than ours. And the landmark Liu et al. trial in the New England Journal of Medicine found that time-restricted eating is no better than regular caloric restriction for weight loss. You're not metabolic switching. You're just eating less.We also dig into what IF means for active people (no performance benefit across any exercise type, real risk of under-fueling and RED-S, and a protein distribution problem that no eight-hour window can solve), what the AHA, ADA, NIA, and ISSN actually say about it, and the robust research linking IF to eating disorder behaviors across all genders — including a landmark study showing that fasting was a stronger predictor of binge eating disorder than any other form of dietary restraint. Fasting is listed in the DSM-5 as a compensatory behavior. Just because you give it a different vocabulary doesn't mean your body experiences it differently.Your body is smarter than any fasting app. Also, breakfast slaps..This Episode's Sponsors:rabbit — Code YDSFEB for 10% offOsmia — Code YDS20 for 20% offTailwind — Code YOURDIET20 for 20% offMicrocosm Coaching — Book a free consultationFull references, episode archive, and our advertising ethics policy at yourdietsuckspodcast.comHosted by: Zoë Rom & Kylee Van Horn, RDN
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  Do Anti-Inflammatory Diets Actually Work? 04.02.2026 1ч 17мин

  Connect With Us: ⁠Patreon⁠ | ⁠@yourdietsuckspod on instagramThe wellness industry wants you to believe your body is on fire. Tired? Inflamed. Bloated? Inflamed. Sad? Believe it or not, inflamed. But what does inflammation actually mean, and should athletes be worried about it?In this episode, we trace how inflammation went from a specific biological process to a wellness Rorschach test that can sell you anything from turmeric lattes to $200 supplement stacks. Zoë covers the history, from 1970s eicosanoid research to the glucose goddess's empire of banana fear, while Kylee breaks down what the research actually shows about anti-inflammatory diets.We cover the Mediterranean diet, elimination protocols like AIP, why sugar isn't the devil, why most inflammation claims come from rodent studies using absurd doses, and why under-fueling might be more inflammatory than anything in your pantry. Plus: why nightshades sound like a goth stripper.This Episode's Sponsors:rabbit — Code YDSFEB for 10% offOsmia — Code YDS20 for 20% offTailwind — Code YOURDIET20 for 20% offMicrocosm Coaching — Book a free consultationFull references, episode archive, and our advertising ethics policy at yourdietsuckspodcast.comHosted by: Zoë Rom & Kylee Van Horn, RDN
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  The Vegetarian Diet 21.01.2026 1ч 20мин

  ⁠Check out our website for a full list of episodes and references!⁠Support us on Patreon, or Apple Subscriptions or Spotify Premium!Can you build muscle, train hard, and actually perform on a vegetarian diet? Do plant-based eaters need more protein? Is iron deficiency a real concern or just wellness industry noise? This week, Zoë and Kylee dig into what the research actually says about vegetarian diets for athletes and active people, no Game Changers propaganda, no carnivore fear-mongering, just science.Turns out vegetarian athletes do need about 20-30% more protein than omnivores to achieve the same muscle protein synthesis. Kylee explains why leucine matters, what PDCAAS scores actually mean, and which plant proteins are worth prioritizing (and which ones are working against you). Then Zoë gets quizzed on iron, B12, zinc, omega-3s, and protein combining in a game called Truth or Deficit, and her performance is, frankly, embarrassing for someone who's been vegetarian since age 17.They also talk about something that doesn't get discussed enough: the research linking vegetarianism and disordered eating. Studies show plant-based eaters are about twice as likely to report orthorexic symptoms as omnivores, and Zoë gets honest about her own history using veganism as eating disorder cover. Plus: 2,500 years of people being unhinged about dietary purity, including Pythagoras possibly getting murdered because he refused to walk through a bean field, the anti-masturbation origins of graham crackers, and how "you are what you eat" thinking has been claimed by feminist abolitionists and literal Nazis alike. The plants aren't the problem. The purity logic might be.Vegetarian diets can absolutely support your training and your health. They just require more planning, more attention to a few key nutrients, and an honest conversation with yourself about why you're doing it.Sponsors:Osmia Skincare — Code YDS20 at osmiaskincare.com for 20% offTailwind Nutrition — Code YOURDIET20 at tailwindnutrition.com for 20% offMicrocosm Coaching — Free consult at microcosm-coaching.com
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  Men, Masculinity, Body Image and Disordered Eating 07.01.2026 1ч 17мин

  We brought the husbands on for this one. Sean Van Horn and TJ David join us to talk about eating disorders in men, disordered eating in male athletes, and how the wellness industry preys on masculine insecurity with different packaging but the same playbook.First up: a game called Influencer or Dictator, where the guys guess whether quotes about discipline and suffering came from David Goggins or Joseph Stalin. It was harder than it should have been.Ten million American men will experience an eating disorder. Men make up 25 percent of cases, but only 10 percent of treatment, and the shame is double because you're told you have a "women's disease." Meanwhile, gym culture sells restriction as optimization and calls it biohacking. If you put it in a spreadsheet, it's not mental illness, right? It's astrology for boys.We trace the history from Charles Atlas selling masculinity during the Great Depression to G.I. Joe's impossible biceps to today's Ginfluencer explosion. Every masculinity crisis spawns a fitness boom. Sean shares his own eating disorder recovery, and we break down the red flags hiding in plain sight: cutting, clean eating, cheat days, earning food, no rest days. When The Rock does it, he's a brand. When your friend does it, check in.Sponsors:Osmia Skincare — Code YDS20 at osmiaskincare.com for 20% offTailwind Nutrition — Code YOURDIET20 at tailwindnutrition.com for 20% offMicrocosm Coaching — Free consult at microcosm-coaching.com
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  REPLAY: The Science of New Year's Resolutions (And Why 91% Fail) 01.01.2026 1ч 8мин

  Encore presentation—ad-free! Support independent, evidence-based nutrition content on Patreon for bonus episodes, Q&As with Kylee, and our full archive.Every January, gyms overflow and 91% of resolutions get abandoned before spring. In this episode, we trace the surprisingly ancient history of New Year's resolutions—from Babylonian harvest promises to Roman offerings to Janus—and explore why our brains are so bad at sustaining behavior change.We debunk the myth that habits take 21 days to form (it's actually 18 to 254 days), explain why willpower is one of the least effective tools for lasting change, and dig into the neuroscience of why your cortisol-flooded prefrontal cortex might be working against you. Kylee breaks down the resolution patterns she sees in her nutrition practice—the athlete trying to drop 20 pounds in four weeks, the five-hour Sunday meal prep plans, the all-or-nothing thinking that turns one missed day into total abandonment—and shares how to set goals that actually stick.We cover Strava's "Quitters Day" phenomenon (January 19th), why dry January might backfire, and why positive reinforcement beats self-punishment every time. Plus: Woody Guthrie's charmingly chaotic 1943 list of "New Year's Rulin's," including "wash teeth, if any" and "help win war / beat Fascism."