The Nutrition Myths That Need to Die in 2025

Feeling confused about nutrition advice in 2025? You're not alone. Despite our advances in science and technology, most nutrition information remains stuck in the past, leaving people confused and frustrated.

In this myth-busting episode, Dr. Jules takes on the most persistent nutrition falsehoods circulating on social media and in everyday conversations. From the pervasive "carbs make you fat" slogan to the obsession with excessive protein intake, we examine why these oversimplified rules are actually preventing people from eating well and feeling their best.

Using the latest scientific evidence, Dr. Jules explains why whole food carbs aren't the enemy, why most people need less protein than they think, and why fiber might be the most underrated nutrient for longevity and disease prevention. You'll learn the truth about healthy fats, why some bloating can actually be a good sign, and why the phrase "if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it" reveals more about scientific literacy than food safety.

What makes this episode especially valuable is the practical approach to building a healthy diet pattern. Rather than focusing on eliminating foods or demonizing nutrients, Dr. Jules emphasizes building your diet on whole, minimally processed plant foods while using some processed foods strategically. The focus shifts from individual nutrients to your overall dietary pattern, which is ultimately what determines your health outcomes. Whether you're looking to improve your eating habits, lose weight sustainably, or reduce disease risk, this episode provides the evidence-based clarity needed to cut through the noise of nutrition misinformation.

Ready to upgrade your nutrition knowledge beyond the clickbait and contradictory advice online? Listen now and discover why the most important predictor of health isn't found in a single food, but in the patterns you build over time. Want more science-backed nutrition information? Visit plantbasedctorjules.com for free resources and connect on social media for daily tips.

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Peace, love, plants!
Dr. Jules

Chapters

• 0:00 Section A

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hey everyone, welcome to Season 2 of the Dr Jules Plant-Based Podcast, where we discuss everything from plant-based nutrition to the main pillars of lifestyle medicine. Yo, plant-based buddies, welcome back to another episode. Today we're going to be busting some nutrition myths. Now it's 2025, we've mapped the human genome, we've landed probes on Mars, yet when it comes to nutrition, most people are still stuck in the 80s. Now, over 85% of people get their news from a smartphone or a tablet, and that's where most people get their nutrition health information too.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Every day, I'm scrolling through my feed and I see the same slogans carbs make you fat. You can't pronounce it. Don't eat it. All processed food is bad. Now, these aren't just outdated. They're actually most likely holding people bad from eating well, from feeling great and from preventing disease. So today we're going to be busting the top nutrition myths that need to die in 2025. And I'm not just going to tell you how they're wrong. I'm going to show you why, using the latest science, so you can feel more confident when you hear these slogans again.

Speaker 1: 1:44

Let's start with one of the big ones To lose weight, you have to cut carbs. Now, here's the truth Weight loss isn't about villainizing a single macronutrient. It's about sustainable eating patterns that create a calorie deficit that you can stick to. Now people lump carbs in the same basket, but they're not built the same. We have carbs that we find in whole foods and we have refined carbs that we find in processed foods.

Speaker 1: 2:15

Carbs can be simple, carbs can be complex. They can be transformed, processed, refined, or they can be surrounded with a whole food matrix made of fiber and water and other phytochemicals which can directly impact the way we process them and absorb them. Carbohydrate is actually just an umbrella term that refers to different saccharide molecules that are grouped together in short or long chains. Short chains are called simple sugars, whereas long chains are called complex carbohydrates. So carbs can be simple or they can be complex, depending on the length of that saccharide chain. But they can also be refined or transformed or processed, depending on whether or not they come surrounded by an intact food matrix made out of fiber and water, phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals. The processed carbohydrates, whether simple or have that matrix destroyed and removed. This can help increase shelf life, stability, texture, flavor and taste, but it definitely robs the whole food of vital nutrients. That makes it healthy.

Speaker 1: 3:41

Refined carbs, like white bread, pastries and sugary drinks. They can spike blood sugar and make it easier to overeat. Every single bite you take has more calorie per bite, meaning that the calorie density is higher. But whole food carbs like oats and lentils, fruit and quinoa those are loaded with fiber, antioxidants and minerals, and the studies, including large-scale cohort data, show that diets that are high in whole grains and complex carbs surrounded by a whole food matrix are linked to lower body weight and lower risk of chronic disease, not increased ones. So, instead of low carb, think slow carb, or think natural whole food carb Carbs that come in their whole, intact and fiber-rich form. It's not carbs that are the problem. It's the type of carbs that people are consuming that are the problem.

Speaker 2: 4:46

It's the type of carbs that people are consuming. That are the problem.

Speaker 1: 4:50

Now the next nutrition myth that I want to talk about is another one that I hear all the time is needing a gram of protein per pound of body weight. Now, protein is super important, but I've never seen a case of protein deficiency in my whole medical career and, unless you're a competitive bodybuilder in a cutting phase, this is probably overkill. Most people, even active people, will do very well with 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight for muscle maintenance and muscle recovery. When you overemphasize protein, you often under-eat fiber, healthy fats and the other phytonutrient-rich foods. Remember the protein quality matters. Protein is simply a chain of amino acids and the body doesn't recognize whether you're eating a chain of amino acids from animal protein or from vegetable protein, but it does recognize what comes packed with it. Animal products tend to contain more cholesterol, more saturated fat, heme, iron and zero grams of fiber and zero grams of phytonutrients, whereas plant protein, like legumes, chickpeas, beans, lentils, soy products, tofu, tempeh, edamame, whole grains, nuts and seeds they not only contain zero milligrams of cholesterol, they not only contain zero milligrams of cholesterol, they contain less saturated fat, they contain fiber and they are more nutrient-dense and antioxidant-rich. Now the third myth that drives me crazy is people demonizing fiber and saying that it's not important. Fiber is essential and every single study that's ever looked at chronic disease risk and fiber intake has shown that the more fiber you consume, the lower your risk of many chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cholesterol, hypertension, cancer. It feeds your gut microbiome, it helps regulate bowel movements, it helps manage cholesterol, blood sugar and even supports your mood through the gut-brain axis. Most North Americans and Canadians get about 14 to 15 grams of fiber per day, when the recommended daily intake is upwards of 25 to 38 grams a day, and we've probably evolved on diets that contain more than double that. As I said, high fiber diets are linked to lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancers and a longer life expectancy, and if fiber came in a pill, it would be the most prescribed drug on the planet, and it does. Just even taking fiber supplements could help. But when it comes to fiber, it's not just about fiber quantity, it's also about fiber variety, and fiber variety that is, getting your fiber from as many different types of plants as possible has been shown to be the main predictor of a healthy gut microbiome.

Speaker 1: 8:15

Now, if there's been a macronutrient that has been demonized. More than carbs, it's definitely fat. Fat isn't the enemy, it's just an umbrella term, and there's a big difference between trans fats, saturated fats, mono or polyunsaturated fats, and some of them are linked to positive health outcomes, like nuts and seeds, and avocados and olives, and even olive oil, are all tied to reduce heart disease risk and better metabolic health. The Mediterranean diet, which is rich in these fats, is one of the most studied and beneficial eating patterns in the world, and it's a type of plant-based diets, and the reason they're so useful is because they contain primarily unsaturated fats. Now the real villains are trans fats and saturated fats. These fats are directly related to increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease and other metabolic dysfunctions like fatty liver. Trans fats are dangerous in any dose, whereas saturated fats are dangerous when consumed in excess.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Now, typically, recommendations are to keep the number of calories consumed from saturated fat at less than 10% of your daily calories. That's usually something like 20 to 23 grams of saturated fat, depending on your weight. If you're at higher risk for cardiovascular disease or other metabolic conditions, you might want to consider getting less than 5% of your calories from saturated fat. That would be around 10 grams or lower. I simply aim for as close to zero as possible, but you want to make sure to aim for more unsaturated fats that are heart healthy. It's not about eating low fat. It's about being smart, because although fat is the most calorie-dense macronutrient, at nine calories per gram, it doesn't make it unhealthy when consumed in the right dose. We need fat to absorb fat soluble vitamins, a, d, e and K to synthesize hormones, and it's part of normal physiology. So it's not about being low fat, it's just about eating the right amount and the right types of fat.

Speaker 1: 10:56

Now, myth number five is that if a food causes bloating, you should be avoiding it. Now some people will eat beans once and say never again, but bloating can actually be a normal part of a healthy gut. That's adjusting to new fiber-rich foods. Bacteria in your colon will ferment these fibers and produce gas, and if you don't have the right balance of gut bugs, they'll be less efficient in doing so. But as you challenge them with these foods in lower doses, over time they will adjust and multiply and become more efficient at fermenting the fiber, and that's simply a sign that your microbiome is active and adjusting. Now, if that bloating is mild and temporary, it's usually a normal sign. Of course, if you're experiencing persistent and painful bloating, get that checked with your doctor, but don't automatically throw out gut-friendly foods just because you're feeling a little bit of bloating at the beginning. Now, bloating could be also caused by food intolerances and a high FODMAP burden, but that's beyond the scope of this episode. If you have discomfort that persists or gets worse, definitely talk to your doctor.

Speaker 1: 12:12

Now another myth that lingers in the medical field is that high levels of HDL will offset high levels of LDL. Hdl, also called good cholesterol, that circulates in your blood is different from LDL, the bad cholesterol that contributes to cardiovascular disease, and for years we told our patients well, your LDL is high, your bad cholesterol is high, but don't worry, this is offset by your good cholesterol and everything is fine. Now we now know that this is wrong. High HDL it doesn't cancel out the risks that are associated with high levels of LDL or APOB. These are markers of bad cholesterol. Now what matters most for reducing the rates of heart attacks and strokes is getting that number as low as possible, keeping your APOB or LDL cholesterol as low as possible. Now you do that by eating more soluble fiber, by reducing saturated fat, avoiding trans fats, and, when needed, you can talk to your doctor about using medication under medical guidance, but do not go to sleep thinking that your high levels of HDL cholesterol in your blood offsets any risk that is posed by having high levels of bad cholesterol.

Speaker 1: 13:42

Now, another myth that I've seen a lot online is that process equals bad. Now, this one is tricky and it's nuanced, because process simply means that the food has been altered in a way or another. If you blend food, you process it. If you freeze it or pickle it or ferment it, it's process. But processing exists on a spectrum.

Speaker 1: 14:07

Processing can be good or bad. Processing can be physical processing changing the texture, blending it, cutting it, chopping it. It could also be processed chemically, and processing chemically could also mean adding things to it, like fortification with vitamins and minerals, which is a good thing, or it can be removing bad things making 3.25% milk, low-fat or skim milk by reducing saturated fat that's generally regarded as a good thing. Or chemical processing of food could be adding harmful substances or removing good ones. So processing exists on a spectrum, from good or bad, physical to chemical. You're either adding good things, removing good things, or adding bad things or removing bad things. It depends. Some level of processing can be harmful Think sugary breakfast cereal or sugary drinks. But some processing can actually be beneficial, like pasteurizing milk or fortifying flours or pressing olives into olive oil. Even tofu and whole grain bread and protein powders are technically processed foods, but they can be part of a healthy diet. The key is whether we have outcome data showing that that food either improves health outcomes or not, and not just the fact that it was processed or not.

Speaker 1: 15:43

Now, another myth that's very popular online is if you can't pronounce it, you shouldn't eat it. Now, this is more a science literacy issue than a toxicity one, and a little bit of a marketing gimmick that will confuse science literacy with danger. Now, vitamin C is also called ascorbic acid, and tricalcium phosphate is a safe source of calcium that we use in fortified foods. A fortification has saved millions of lives. Think of iodine in salt. Think of folic acid in flour. Don't fear a label just because it sounds like a chemistry class. A lot of this issue with scary ingredients are related to people simply not being educated in that field. Now, that doesn't mean that processed foods are great and they're full of ingredients that we don't need to worry about Now. Just keep in mind that some ingredients that we add to processed foods are not great at promoting health, but some of them sound scary but are perfectly fine. So just be careful in demonizing foods just because they contain ingredients that you can't pronounce.

Speaker 1: 17:05

So how do we navigate nutrition in 2025? Online, in the same day, you can see two people that look like experts that are both contradicting themselves. It's very difficult to cut through the noise. But basically, to eat a healthy diet, it's pretty simple. It's building your diet on whole and minimally processed plant foods of fruits, veggies, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, and herbs and spices. And don't fear processed foods. Use them strategically. Fortified plant milks and protein powders or whole grain breads can help fill these gaps.

Speaker 1: 17:45

And the most important predictor of health is your pattern over time. So focus on patterns and not on single nutrients the overall quality of your diet. This will matter a lot more than demonizing one single food and, when in doubt, check credible sources. Try to look for peer-reviewed studies, registered dieticians or physicians that have training in nutrition. Now it's time that a lot of these nutrition myths die, and not because it's trendy to bust them or because I like policing other people's content, but because holding on to them keeps people confused, fearful and stuck in all or nothing thinking.

Speaker 1: 18:30

Nutrition is extremely complex, but it doesn't have to be complicated. Eat more plants, focus on variety, cook at home when you can, and try not to get your health advice from an influencer on TikTok. Now I can't even begin to imagine how confusing it must be for the average person to navigate nutrition health information online. I'm here speaking in nuance, asking people to try to eat more veggies, but when you open your phone, you have people with six-packs that are shirtless in a grocery store, speaking with the utmost confidence store speaking with the utmost confidence, stating that they have expertise in a field that they don't have any credentials in. And as soon as you open your phone, they're there again producing four or five videos per day with millions of followers. Now algorithms will support and show people that have contradictory or opposing views. The algorithm loves these things that are clickbaity and that have seven-word slogans.

Speaker 1: 19:42

They don't really enjoy telling people what they already know that eating healthier and moving more and sleeping more and managing stress are the main pillars of a healthy lifestyle. But that's why you're here and that's why I do what I do, so I can tell you these things right on. So thanks for being here, thanks for listening to my rant about nutrition myths. I hope you learned a few things. We'll see you at the next episode. Peace, hey everyone, go check out my website, plantbasedctorjulescom, to find free downloadable resources, and remember that you can find me on facebook and instagram at drjulescornier, and on youtube at plantbaseddoctorjules.