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Your Diet Sucks

Zoë Rom
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  • NUTRITION
  • EVERY TWO WEEKS

Diet culture, you've met your scientific match. Hosted by an elite ultrarunner/journalist and a registered dietitian, Your Diet Sucks dismantles the myths, trends, and pseudoscience that screw up how we think about food, health, and fitness. Subscribe to bonus episodes here: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/microcosm-coaching0/subscribe

  1. Is Natural Food Actually Healthier?

    5 DAYS AGO

    Is Natural Food Actually Healthier?

    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 BY rabbit — 10% off at runinrabbit.com/collections/womens-new with code YOURDIETSUCKS10 Tailwind Nutrition — 20% off at tailwindnutrition.com with code YOURDIET20 Osmia — 20% off at osmiaskincare.com with code YDS20 Microcosm Coaching — Free consultation at microcosm-coaching.com

    1hr 24min

  2. 6 APR • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    April Bonus: Collagen, Body Composition Testing, Alzheimers Risk, Menopause, and the Toughest Question Yet

    April's listener Q&A came in hot, and honestly, this might be one of our favorites we've recorded. We covered a lot of ground: the perennial collagen question (Kylee answers it in 90 seconds flat, we timed it), when body composition testing actually makes sense versus when it's a solution in search of a problem, and why hyper-specific wellness protocols (yes, including the 30-squats-after-every-meal thing your coworker sent you) are almost always better evidence of prescription inflation than actual science. Then we got into menopause nutrition, which is a topic that generates a ton of questions and, unfortunately, a roughly equal amount of grift. Kylee walks through what the evidence actually supports, and why you might be surprised. We end our hardest, and potentially most favorite question yet. You'll have to listen to find out! It's a genuinely good one. Thank you, as always, for being here and making this work possible.

    59 min
  3. The Caffeine Episode

    1 APR

    The Caffeine Episode

    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.

    1hr 25min
  4. God, Guilt, and the Gospel of Clean Eating

    18 MAR

    God, Guilt, and the Gospel of Clean Eating

    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.

    1hr 20min

  5. 11 MAR ·  BONUS • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    March Bonus: Iron Infusions, Sourdough Myths, Turning 40, and Clapping Back at Protein Police

    Happy March! Kylee kicked off her 40s, Zoë is about to race through the Chianti Hills, and hot girl mountain summer is officially in the planning stages. This month's AMA covers a lot of ground: whether eating the same meals on repeat is a sign of rigidity or just good systems (and a brilliant styling hack that applies to both your wardrobe and your breakfast), the deeply complicated web of low ferritin, from gut health to thyroid to under-fueling to WADA policy, and why iron infusions are a tool that deserves less stigma and more nuance, especially for menstruating athletes. Zoë gets personal about navigating eating disorder recovery as a runner, what the red-flag questions actually look like in practice, and why recovery is a spectrum, not a switch. Then we get into Instagram's favorite overachiever bread: sourdough is delicious and fun, but it's not magic. And finally, Zoë delivers a tier-ranked list of comebacks for the next time someone tells you that you "don't look like a bodybuilder." Polite to spicy. You're welcome.

    49 min
  6. How Whole30 Became a Diet Empire Without a Single Study

    4 MAR

    How Whole30 Became a Diet Empire Without a Single Study

    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.

    1hr 21min

  7. 25 FEB • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Bonus: Bone Health Myths, Fast Food for Athletes,How to Fuel High-Volume Training, and Protein Powder Tips | February Bonus Episode

    This month's AMA kicks off with a selfish one from Zoë herself: how do you periodize your fueling when your training goes from evenly distributed mileage to extremely concentrated long-run blocks? From there, we dig into a listener question about how much fast food is "okay to eat". We talk about frequency, context, and why skipping a meal because it's from a drive-through is almost always worse than just eating the burger. Then we get into bone health and break down what actually moves the needle on bone density and why the fitness industry's obsession with heavy lifting and weighted vests is might be doing more harm than good. We also tackle a question about what to do when you need to eat but don't feel hungry, and we've got strategies for eating enough when nothing sounds good. And finally, we close out with a no-nonsense hierarchy for buying protein powders and supplements. Happy birthday, Kylee. Welcome to your forties. We moved your birthday to June 13th.

    41 min
  8. Does Intermittent Fasting Actually Do Anything?

    18 FEB

    Does Intermittent Fasting Actually Do Anything?

    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% off Osmia — Code YDS20 for 20% off Tailwind — Code YOURDIET20 for 20% off Microcosm Coaching — Book a free consultation Full references, episode archive, and our advertising ethics policy at yourdietsuckspodcast.com Hosted by: Zoë Rom & Kylee Van Horn, RDN

    1hr 22min
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Trailer

About

Diet culture, you've met your scientific match. Hosted by an elite ultrarunner/journalist and a registered dietitian, Your Diet Sucks dismantles the myths, trends, and pseudoscience that screw up how we think about food, health, and fitness. Subscribe to bonus episodes here: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/microcosm-coaching0/subscribe

Information

  • Creator
    Zoë Rom
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    69
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Zoë Rom
  • Show Website
    Your Diet Sucks
  • Provider
    Zoe Rom

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