>> Dr. Terry Simpson: Let me start with something we all can agree on.

Eat real food, limit added sugar, avoid ultra

processed junk. Good solid. Correct. Now, here's

the problem. That advice wasn't discovered last

week, and pretending it was, while quietly

sneaking in. Worse advice is how people get hurt

and how policies don't get made. It's lazy.

Science and public policy. Today on 4Q, we're

going to talk about what happens when nutrition

stops being science and starts being branding. I,

um, am your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr.

Terri Simpson, and this is Fork U Fork University,

where we make sense of the madness of the Maha

public policy and teach you a little bit about

food and medicine. Let's set the table. Literally.

Okay, maybe not literally. The New Dietary

Guidelines and the Upside Down Pyramid have been

sold as a breakthrough, a reset, a, uh, moment of

truth. And to be fair, some of what they're saying

is right. Ultra processed food has some problems.

Added sugar should be limited and most people

should eat more whole foods. I've said that for

years. So is almost everybody in the world of

nutrition. But when influencers say, see, we were

right all along, my response is simple. You didn't

discover it, you copied it. Here's the danger.

It's not that they agree with the obvious stuff,

it's that they think they discovered it. Because

once you convince yourself you're the discoverer,

you also convince yourself you're qualified to

rewrite the rest of the science. And that's where

things go off the rail. You cannot replace

scientists with influencers. Let me say that

again. We can't afford to replace scientists with

influencers. Nutrition science didn't come from

podcasts. It came from metabolic wards, from

cohort studies, from randomized trials, from

people being willing to have boring, cautious, and

sometimes wrong experiments. And just to be clear,

there isn't a Mediterranean diet influencer

community. There's no dash diet movement. But

there are scientists and there are physicians and

there are registered dietitians that understand

nutrition. By contrast, there is a loud, low carb

and carnivore influencer ecosystem, complete with

brands, supplements, coaching programs, and

contrarian identity. The difference matters

because influence is not evidence. If you want to

know if someone understands nutrition science or

is just cosplaying it, ask them which matters

more, fiber or saturated fat? And here's what the

influencer crowd loves to say. Fiber isn't an

essential nutrient. Now, technically, that's true

in the narrowest biochemical sense, but it's

misleading because fiber is essential. If you like

a healthy gut microbiome, better. Insulin

sensitivity, lower Cardiovascular risk and normal

colonic function. Fiber feeds the bacteria that

regulate inflammation and the metabolism. The

entire field of research exists because of this.

Uh, contrast that with saturated fat. Saturated

fat is truly non essential. There is no deficiency

disease from not eating it. Your body makes all it

needs, and excess saturated fat raises LDL

cholesterol, worsens arterial health, and

increases cardiovascular risk. So ask why is fiber

dismissed as optional while saturated fat non

essential and harmful in excess is quietly

rehabilitated? That's not science. That is

ideology. And here's another simple brain. The

most important organ you own is largely made of

polyunsaturated fats. Yep, the same fats that are

called seed oils. Now, you don't want saturated

fat replacing the fats in those cell, uh,

membranes. But if you eat enough saturated fat, it

will. And you definitely don't want saturated fat

clogging the arteries supplying the brain. Unless

stroke and cognitive decline are part of your

plan. Biology doesn't care about your podcast

downloads. It doesn't care how good looking you

are without a shirt. It cares about what you put

into your body. And if you put enough saturated

fat going to replace cell membranes with saturated

fat instead of polyunsaturated fat, they will

become stiffer and harder and much more difficult

for you to negotiate life. I had an exchange

recently with Kali Means that illustrates the

problem perfectly. His argument, in essence, was

the government is finally calling out sugar and

processed food and you should get behind that. And

my answer is simple. We already did years ago.

But. But when you act like you discovered it, you

also act like you're qualified to rewrite

everything else. And that's when bad ideas sneak

in. Agreeing with the basics doesn't earn you the

keys to the lab. Now, here's the part that really

bothers me. After influencers took the place of

scientists, after they reframed the message and

claimed credit, they effectively said, okay,

America, you're on your own now. Eat real food.

Figure it out. Take responsibility. Now that's

easy if you're wealthy, mobile and online. It's

not so easy if you live in a food desert, rely on

school lunches, or work two jobs. Public health

exists because the willpower doesn't scale. And

here's the bottom line. Let me make it really

clear. Yes, eat real food. Yes, limit sugar. Yes,

minimize ultra processed food. We agree. But don't

pretend you discovered it. Don't replace science

with influencers. And don't sneak saturated fat

back while dismissing fiber. Because when

confidence replace evidence, people don't get

healthier. They just get misled on 4Q. We believe

food should be delicious, practical and grounded

in evidence. And evidence doesn't care who said it

first, only whether it works. Data beats dogma,

science beats slogans, and health doesn't improve

when we trade researchers like Dr. Hall for

influencers like Cali Memes. This has been

researched and and written by me, Dr. Terry

Simpson. And while I am a board certified

physician and certified in culinary medicine, I am

not your doctor. When you seek to make changes to

your diet, please see a registered dietitian and a

board certified physician. Not some eastern

trained person and certainly not a chiropractor.

All things audio have been done by our friends at

Simpler media and the pod God himself, Mr. Evotera

and you can find blog and further information on

my substack@drsimpson.com and

yourdoctorsorders.com and for Q.com did you get

enough.coms there? Because we like dot coms

apparently. Anyway, have a good week everybody and

remember illegitimi non carborundum. All right,

Ebo, what do you think? I think that instead of

going to a doctor now we should just go to

influencers, health coaches and gym bros.

>> Speaker B: Well you're the one with the giant TikTok

following influencer. Also, what the hell was that

Harry Potter sounding stuff at the end there? Oh,

and then there's this.

>> Dr. Terry Simpson: And increases cardiovascular risk. Risk. And

increases cardiovascular risk. I wonder if Ivo's

gonna leave that in.

>> Speaker B: Oh you do, do you? No you don't. And he's not.