Caffeine, Protein, and Ice Cream: What We've Learned from the Podcast
We've been hosting this podcast for a long time. In over eighty episodes with over sixty experts, we've learned A LOT. In this episode, we wanted to discuss what we've learned from all our years of doing Food We Need to Talk. In this podcast, we focus specifically on diet. What has stuck with us over the years? How have our habits around caffeine, ice cream, Starbucks, and protein changed? Stay tuned to find out.
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Eddie You know who's the guest today, Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom. Mystery guest. Please identify yourself.
Juna Her. Drumroll.
Eddie It's us.
Juna Oh my goodness. Yeah, guys we never do solo pods. But we said it's time we've amassed enough knowledge to talk on our own, right? And not have a guess.
Eddie Well, at least we could share what we think we remember.
Juna Yes.
Eddie So that's the amassing of knowledge, right?
Juna Our memory of our own other guests.
Eddie Right.
Juna So we've had over 80 episodes. We've been doing the Potter for six years. And we thought to ourselves, we've learned a lot over these past six years, haven't we? And when I came in, I already thought I knew everything ready. I was like making the podcast for the people, you know. I was like, yeah, let me, let me relay, let me.
Eddie Clear all of my acquired knowledge.
Juna And I would like I would choose the guests and stuff according to what I want, share with the people. But still in the back of my mind, I was like, oh, yeah, I know what they're gonna say. Because, like, I'd rather research. Yeah.
Eddie Right. And let me talk about confirmation bias. It's sort of like, yeah, I know that less processed foods are better. So I'm going to find someone who says that.
Juna Yeah, exactly.
Eddie And then the guests come in and it's like, whoa. You know, I think you mind.
Juna Blowing the.
Eddie Volume of what we don't know is tremendous. And I think what's interesting, sort of like the pull back the curtain secret here, is that you and I, of course, are doing this for the people and for all of the tens of thousands of listeners for you guys. But we're listening as well,
Juna Shocking.
Eddie And things have, you know, things have changed for me over the few years of hearing things and saying, maybe I didn't know that, right? Or maybe the knowledge has changed and I'm going to try something a little different.
Juna Over a fifth of my life has been doing the potter.
Eddie Wow. Not so for me. Hahahahahahahaha
Juna Your age shall remain undisclosed. Proportion shall also remain undisclosed. Oh, but it's a lot. Yes. And in the beginning, you know, our episodes were so generalized. So they feel like. Yeah, it's not out of the question that maybe we didn't learn as much in the first couple episodes. But if you've been doing it for six years and you have 80 episodes, like, obviously you learn a lot more because the topics have become much more niche. And we've kind of gone into, I think, a lot more complicated topics as time has gone on because we have more time now. So I thought it'd be really fun to talk about the things that we've actually changed in our lives because of the podcast and the things that have actually stuck with us, because obviously there's a lot of info.
Eddie And before we like sort of jump into the episode, some things seem so easy. And then when you try to do them.
Juna They're they're really hard.
Eddie They're really hard. And that's okay. Like let's talk about where we can like give ourselves some grace. Okay.
Juna But things also you think they're going to be so hard. Like if you told me that 2 or 3 years ago you wouldn't be drinking coffee anymore, I'd be like, no way. Like comments on my personality and now I don't. So anyways, we'll get into all of that in the episode. On today's episode, we're going through some of the things we learned from six years of hosting the podcast. What stuck with us? What have we changed and what has actually improved our lives?
Eddie I'm Juniata and I'm Doctor Eddie Phillips, associate professor at Harvard Medical School.
Juna And you're listening to Food We Need to Talk, the only health podcast that has been scientifically proven to improve your life, even if you're the one hosting it. First we're going to start with a review. So as you guys know reviews are what help other people find the potter. We love the reviews. So if you want us to shout you out on the podcast, leave us a five star rating in review and we'll read it out here. And Eddie is going to do the honor of reading the review today.
Eddie And this one is from Sarah. 1266. You know, what are the chances that she was born in December of 1966? Just, just oh.
Juna I thought you were gonna say, what are the chances she was born in the year 1266? And I was like, I'm pretty low.
Eddie I'm going. I'm going with December 1966. But that's neither here nor there because Sarah says a great evidence based podcast. I love this podcast. Exclamation point. It's very scientific and evidence based. I have enjoyed the episode so far and look forward to many more.
Juna Thank you Sarah.
Eddie How short.
Juna And sweet. Perfect to the point right?
Eddie And we feel better.
Juna So leaving us a five star rating review helps other people find the show. And like you guys saw from Sarah, it doesn't have to be that long. It can be short and sweet. As long as it's five star. We're reading it out loud.
Eddie And be sure to tell us the month and year that you were born,
Juna That's too early to collect data on these things. And now we're going to go straight to the episode.
Eddie You know, where do you want to start?
Juna So since the podcast is called food, we Need to Talk, I think we showed the food part or the diet part of what we have actually changed in our lives. So do you want to go first?
Eddie Well, I'm going to pick up on your wonderfully caffeinated personality without caffeine. So what is it that you heard that got you off of coffee? Because what I remember hearing pushed me up to a double espresso shot each morning.
Juna Oh, my. Well, you went the opposite way.
Eddie I, I'm, I'm goodness. He's drinking my coffee.
Juna Well I remember it. Yeah. So we did do an episode on caffeine with Rob Van Dam. And he did say that what was it was up to three cups of coffee or four cups of coffee a day or something.
Eddie I remember for a guy.
Juna I think it was for you, right? Still shows benefits. And I remember hearing that and like, obviously I did drink coffee every day at that point. But I guess the big things that changed it for me were, first of all, I couldn't sleep more than 6 or 7 hours a day. Even though I was tired. I would like wake up 6 or 7 hours later. And I just remember thinking, there's no way it could be my coffee because I would have my coffee at like 7 or 8 a.m.. And they always say when it's caffeine that affects your sleep. People always say things like, well, are you drinking it super late in the day? And so I said, well, this can't be me. I drink it super early in the morning and I don't know what prompted me. I think I had done the interview with Rob. And we did the interview months ahead of when it actually posted. So it posted in January. But I think we record the interview in like October or something. You are preparing for a resolution series and I think you said something like people respond so differently to caffeine that even like having it super early in the morning is too much for certain people. So I just decided to try it because I'm very careful about my sleep hygiene and all other aspects. And I was like, I don't really know what else it could be besides this. So I stopped having coffee and it was a transition process. Part of it was I was trying to save money. Part of it was I got an espresso machine with like the decaf pods, and I was like, okay, I'll have my decaf pods at home. And then the sleep thing.
Eddie That's a different kind of podcast, a.
Juna Different kind of potter.
Eddie Right?
Juna And I just noticed immediately that week I was sleeping eight plus hours a day, which I haven't done since, like college, like even in college, because I was having so much caffeine in college, because I was having pre-workout and a cold brew every day. And that was when it first started, where I was sleeping only five, six hours, and then overtime had gone up to six seven because I was having less caffeine. But I was just shocked because from then on I was like, oh my gosh, like, this was the thing that's been affecting my sleep this whole time for like years.
Eddie Another piece, and I think it came from Doctor Param data. He was actually speaking about sleep.
Juna Yeah.
Eddie And I have to get this straight. But the half life of the caffeine that you're having at 7 a.m.. Yeah. Oh, gosh. We have to check.
Juna I think it's like six hours. It depends like how fast you metabolize.
Eddie So if it's if it's at least six hours, that means by 1 p.m. you're down to half a cup. And then by 7 p.m. you got a quarter cup. And if you're sensitive to it and when you're trying to go to bed at 910, right, you may still have some caffeine in you. Oh yeah. And it's interesting. So you did the experiment of removing that. Yeah. And found that you're now sleeping a normal full amount.
Juna And then what I realized is like another big reason I go to Starbucks is basically because I like the flavored drinks and I wouldn't get them every day, but I would still get them like, know, once or twice a week or something. And so the other big thing that changed that habit was we did our sugar episode, and I don't know why it never dawned on me that, like, sugar sweetened beverages were also my Starbucks drinks. It's not just for soda.
Eddie When you hear the phrase sugar sweetened beverages. Yeah, I of course think about things that other people are drinking.
Juna Great food. Those people over there drink.
Eddie I don't drink soda sweetened beverages. And, so it doesn't apply to me. Oh, yeah, but what heartbreaking.
Juna The caramel macchiato.
Eddie Take us through the caramel macchiato. Yeah, and then those Christmas drinks.
Juna You guys. Oh, my God, I love the Christmas in the fall drinks. Okay, basically, I have this idea, like, in my head, I've always known soda is bad for you from a young age. So I guess I always had this association that, like, I shouldn't drink soda. And I don't know, it just wasn't that hard for me to not drink soda because I, I used to like when I was younger, but we didn't have it often. So then I kind of just stopped liking it. And then when I was an adult, the branding of Starbucks is that the drinks are cute and they're like girly and fun and cool. Do you do.
Eddie Anything?
Juna Like, I just feel like I love that I love those drinks because it's just like a fun cultural thing that like when the PSL comes out, everybody knows it's coming out and everybody's like talking about it. It's like my jargon alert.
Eddie PSL, Pumpkin Spice.
Juna Latte.
Eddie And pumpkin spice has now moved up from October to when are we going to see it?
Juna Oh my god they came in August or something. No, I swear to God it was like August 30th or something crazy.
Eddie It's a movement before we leave the caffeine. Another thing that I heard that sort of made sense to me, and I think it made me change my behavior was, I'm a geek out here a little bit, that the energy in our bodies comes from ATP. Yeah. Adenosine triphosphate. Yeah. And as you burn this up to do all sorts of things like living. But I'm thinking specifically of exercise that you knock off these, the phosphates and you're left with a naked adenosine. And that makes you feel tired.
Juna Yeah.
Eddie And then you can go to sleep unless you've had your caffeine, which blocks the adenosine receptors. Right. I have this, right? Yes.
Juna That's exactly how.
Eddie Caffeine. And I just thought, oh, this makes sense. I'm going to exercise enough every day to knock off the phosphates and get enough adenosine. So that and I became more conscious of the fact that come 10:00, like, don't ask me to make sense.
Juna Yeah.
Eddie And come 11:00, don't ask me though. So keep my eyes open. Like I almost felt like, oh, this is a natural process because I've done enough exercise and I've had my I do drink caffeine. Yeah. Early in the morning. Right. Probably before 8:00. And I think it metabolizes quickly enough. Anyway. I think sort of it maybe changed my understanding of what it is to feel fatigue and honor it and not try to fight through it.
Juna I think that it's important to know how these things work, because then I think you're much more likely to go along with what your body's telling you. I feel like when you don't know what your body's doing and why it's doing it, you're kind of like, it's inconvenient for me. Like it's inconvenient for me to be tired now. So I'm just not going to be. I'm going to like, do the other stuff I need to do. But when you realize why everything works, why it works, you're much more likely to like, let it do its thing.
Eddie Let's stay on the diets list. Yeah. Nutrition. You mentioned sweeteners. Yeah. What's changed? And where are you headed? Okay.
Juna Artificial sweeteners. I basically completely cut out after the episode with Doctor Who is I think we did the episode this year and I was already like, drastically cutting down, mostly because of all the other experts we had had on basically talking about like, processed food and about how, like, the body hadn't really figured out how to deal with processed food, which is why it was such a problem for so many people. So I had extrapolated that myself to kind of artificial sweeteners, cause I was like, this just doesn't really make sense. Like, they taste sweet, but they don't contain any calories, which is why they're called non-nutritive sweeteners. And so it just made sense to me that, like, your body wouldn't really know what to do with it, per se, and it might cause problems. And I'd kind of heard here and there, people say things like it disrupts the gut microbiome and that it might cause insulin resistance problems because your body gets the signal for sweetness and doesn't get the sugar.
Eddie So that fact that you just said, I understand it intellectually. Yeah, but how weird is that?
Juna It's weird.
Eddie Right? The relationship between nutritive sweeteners, otherwise known as sugar.
Juna Yeah.
Eddie In whatever form it comes in. Yeah, it could be molasses or maple sirup. One my favorite, most favorite things. And honey and, agave, I guess. And, you know, they have other elements in there, some a little bit of other nutrition, but basically it's a concentrated sweet. So the relationship of what your body is doing with that and how your insulin response is going to vary. If you have sweeteners, nutritive sweeteners or sugar regularly, that makes perfect sense. And and you're going to end up pre-diabetic and and diabetic. And boy, you know, one of the best things you can do to avoid it is to not have, let's say, sugar sweetened beverages, because you just have so much sugar all at once. But the fact that your body, like, tastes the sweet. Yeah. And then, you know, kind of goes through that same motion. That seems unfair. Does it? Yeah. But, like, you know what? But but that's the fact, right?
Juna Yeah. Well, exactly. And when doctors who is was telling us all the research about artificial sweeteners and about how like, you know, the reason most people have artificial sweeteners is to save on calories, right? Or because we think, like sugar is raising our blood sugar. So when they do studies on artificial sweeteners, people will lose weight in the short term because they're replacing, you know, sugared things with on sugar things I guess. But then in the long term basically their weight loss stalls out and it ends up being the same. That's when I was like okay I don't even know what these things are doing. They're disrupting my microbiome. It doesn't really save you on calories, but it seems like you make up for it in other ways. So basically, I just like don't have anything with artificial sweeteners anymore. And I even the one thing that was really having trouble with, because I'd already kind of cut out protein bars on a regular basis, and I didn't really buy any more zero calorie sweetened drinks or anything like that, because I was like, if something is zero calorie but sweet, there's something up. Like, no matter how they advertise it, it doesn't matter if it tastes sweet and it says zero calories, like something weird is going on. And so the only thing I was really having trouble with was the protein powder, because it's really, really hard to find a protein powder that has actual sugar in it because they would never sell that, because the type of audience that looks for protein powders is also usually an audience that does not want sugar. But our guest actually sent me a link to the one he gets.
Eddie Yeah.
Juna Which you can get it with like eight grams of sugar, or you can just get it unflavored. So I've just basically switched to unflavored protein powder and I just use like bananas and stuff for everyone to make a shake. And I think it also makes it easier to not have protein powder all the time, because it tastes a lot less good when it's, like, not artificially high and. Right. So it really becomes just a utilitarian thing and not like I think this is really yummy. And I have to say, in both these instances, the caffeine and the artificial sweeteners, now that I don't have either of them, I finally get what people mean when they say that like such and such. Tastes bad because I've been having it for so long. Like I've been having artificial sweeteners for like 5 or 6 years that like legitimately, I did not taste it anymore when people said they hated the taste of like, stevia. I had no idea what they're talking about. Again, so.
Eddie You you're accommodated to the taste of it? Yeah, totally. So before we go on to discuss protein, which you mentioned a couple of times, I just wanted to share another fact. I think we learned that in the podcast. But when you're doing, let's say, an endurance sport, you will need to bring in some nutrition, right? I mean, if you're going more than 45 minutes and you're going hard, then you're going to need something on board. And there's this fascinating thing that if you put a sweet thing in your mouth. It will actually improve your performance. Even before you digested it. And. And even if it's not real sugar. Yeah. That your body again just it's.
Juna Probably it's expecting.
Eddie Sugar. I guess. So maybe we need to revisit this and get someone on to answer that. Like what is actually happening and can your body anticipate like oh, help is on the way. So therefore I can speed up or at least keep going. Yeah. So I love the fact that you've refined your diet, but it doesn't even sound like refining. It's just like evolving more.
Juna Yeah, when I have the drinks from Starbucks again and when I've had the artificial sweetened stuff again, I like don't like either of them as much as I used to. And it's so sad because Starbucks, especially with such a like part of my life. And it just, I just don't like it as much. Like I never get the same satisfaction out of it as I used to. And I think it comes from like not having them both all the time anymore. So I think that thing that they say of like if you stop having something, it gets easier and easier not to have it. I just think it's really true because both of those things like I don't really have to try not to have them anymore because I just don't like them as much.
Eddie But but I'm hearing some sadness.
Juna I know it's because I love Starbucks at Starbucks are so excellent at branding that like they've really infiltrated, like my personality with artificial sweeteners. I don't want to be associated with a I don't feel connected to them. But Starbucks like, I've been a Starbucks gold member since I was 15. Like hahahahahahaha. Okay. Sorry.
Eddie On to the protein. Yes, you've mentioned that a few times. I'll jump in to say when Christopher Gardner joined us twice now. Yeah, the professor from Stanford. My takeaway was I am getting enough protein when there is such a mania out there. When you think about what is popular in the food world over the decades, well, fat was out, you know, starting in the 80s and 90s. And now we realize that that something's wrong with that. And carbs. Well, maybe you want no carbs or whatever. And now we're into protein. And people are convinced that the more the better. And I just remember Christopher making this point, like if you look across the globe at all of these other developed countries where the average intake of protein is kind of at or closer to the recommended, what is it like 0.8g/kg per day? Those places people are fine. They're not they're not starving. And you could even argue that their health, for various reasons, is often better compared to the US. And here, like we're way high. I don't know that it's helping our health. You know, just to sort of, like, finish for me, but I still would throw a scoop of protein powder into a shake after I work out and I, you know, still kind of make some excuses in my mind, like saying like, well, I'm primarily vegetarian. Yeah. So therefore it's a little harder to get the protein out of, out of, plant based foods, but not really. I mean, not that bad. I'm older, so it's harder. I right? Need more.
Juna Yeah, you do, you.
Eddie Know, and I'm an athlete, so therefore I need more and you know. But does that mean I need twice. So at least what I have done is I stopped worrying or counting how much protein. Yeah.
Juna Okay. So we had Stu Phillips on, and he was like our protein episode. And I have been, like, reading his papers for a long time because he's been publishing about protein for a long time. And it used to be like, basically like we were saying, like, you need to have so much protein to maintain your muscle mass. And then basically a lot of his research had evolved, and they had found that you didn't need that much protein. Like, you still need a good portion for me. I never get enough protein if I just leave myself to my, like, natural devices because I just didn't grow up eating meat and I didn't grow up caring about other proteins, I feel like I just love, I don't know, I guess I just love vegetables and the things that I naturally love are just not things that have any protein. But anyways, I remember like I started to be like, okay, maybe I've been like worrying about this a little bit too much. And like you, I'm like, oh, what? I lift weights like I need to have a lot of protein. And I will say, okay. I basically stopped caring altogether, and I think that was the wrong thing to do because I lost so much muscle mass, like in the span of like 2 or 3 months, I lost like 8 pounds of muscle. I had a Dexa scan done, and I'd lost so much muscle, and the only thing I'd done differently was basically I just like, stopped caring about protein at all.
Eddie Do you stop counting? You stop scooping, you stop.
Juna I just stop trying to have protein at each meal. I think that's like the way that I. I don't have to count it, but I think I have to be conscious to have protein at each meal, like some sort of source of protein. So I guess I went too far the other way. And now I've gotten back to a medium point where I tried to have as much real protein as possible, and I don't have protein powder as much as I used to, for sure. Like. I've really tried to cut down on any sort of processed protein, but I do try to make sure that there's some form of protein in my meals. And also this relates to another guest we had Joel Jamison. We're talking about muscle mass because when we were talking about cardio and lifting and he was saying that like the reason my cardio never improves is because basically I just don't do it often enough in the week to improve it. I was telling him like once or twice a week, I'll go on the treadmill and I run a mile, and I don't know why. I'm just not getting better. And he was like, you're like, running for 20 minutes a week and you're lifting for six hours a week. Like, what do you expect? But I'm saying to him, like, but if I don't lift six hours a week, I'm going to get weaker. And like. And he said he used to be a football player. And when he started, like, doing more cardio, like, yeah, he did lose muscle mass, but he said he had gotten healthier and that he said, like, you don't need to have the most muscle mass possible. Like that's not the most important thing. And obviously it depends on who you're talking to. Because if somebody doesn't do any resistance training and they're getting older than, yeah, it is important for that person to improve their muscle mass. But like for me, who has been lifting six days a week for like seven years, it's okay to lose a little bit. And so even on the Dexa scan, when I lost 7 pounds of muscle, I was still off the chart. Like we have a tri. It's like poor. Okay.
Eddie Yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
Juna I was still off to the right a very good still after losing muscle. So I was like, I just have to accept that it's okay. And so I think part of it is that too, like I'm trying to be more moderate with the amount of protein. I have an obvious stress about it, but still be mindful and then also be okay with the fact that, like, you don't have to have the most muscle mass possible, like you don't have to maximize muscle.
Eddie So what was what was important to you about the number in the Dexa scan that you did? Did your performance?
Juna Yes, I'd gotten weaker. Yeah. But it's also just that, like every time I do a Dexa scan, I had improved my body composition. So my fat mass had gone down, my muscle mass had gone up. And that been true for the past 4 or 5 years. I guess my body fat percentage, which is what percentage of your body is fat, had always been going down because I'd been getting more muscular. And for the first time on this Dexa scan, it went up by a percentage because I'd lost more muscle than I had lost fat. Yeah. And I just felt like I was like, undoing all the hard work I had done for six years of, like, I'd been so consistent at the gym, and I'd been careful with my protein and careful with, like, my supplements and drinking of water, all these things. I felt like I was undoing all my hard work. But then I realized, like, I'm not doing all this to compete in some sort of like, strength competition or a bodybuilding competition or something like that. I actually just want to be healthy. And so, like if according to the chart on the Dexa scan, I already have above average muscle mass, it doesn't really matter that I have like the most muscle mass, because ultimately, like I'd rather be able to run well and be fairly strong than just be super strong and not run at all.
Eddie I'm thinking of the Olympics are coming up, and the best athlete in the world is the one that wins the decathlon. Yeah, because they have to be fast and they have to be agile and they have to be really strong, and they have to have power through all of the different sports. Yeah. And you're looking at sounds like for a little bit more balance.
Juna Yeah.
Eddie And you still don't like the treadmill. So.
Juna No but I like it more. I love running outside with my friends and stuff. That's the thing. Running human, really social. It's really fun.
Eddie And we'll be right back with our special guests Eddie and Yuna. And we're back. It's you and me talking about what we've learned from several years of podcasting, and today we're focusing mostly on diet. You know, you mentioned doing a Dexa scan and for just a little jargon alert that's, you know, the one that's usually done for in a doctor's office, checking your bone density. But there's a lot of other information, like how much muscle do you have and how much fat you're carrying around. And this is just a brief aside, but we've sent, many resident physicians who come to train with us up in Boston in lifestyle medicine, and we send them to an exercise lab, and they get into the Dexa and they're expecting to just hear about their bones, and they say, how was the exercise? And they go, oh my God, I'm 37% fat. Hahahahahahaha.
Juna It's shocking. Everybody I know who's gotten a Dexa scan is like, shocked by the results, because the scale just tells you so little information, and so the Dexa is way more accurate. It can be expensive depending on where you live, but it's just so much more accurate.
Eddie And it's readily available through physicians offices. But also there's a whole industry of people that will do the test for you for swiping your credit card. Yeah. So I'll I'll share what I learned from mine. Yes. Which was that they said that I had plenty of muscle. Woo. And I was actually like, right at you don't need more. You don't need less.
Juna Okay, great.
Eddie But then they said, but you know, if you were 11 pounds lighter, you'd be at your appropriate balance. Yeah. So with that, I thought. But I hid so well.
Juna Yeah.
Eddie Because I listen to her class and I. And I have some joy in what I'm eating and and some grace. And of course, I am entitled to a bowl of ice cream when I get home from work, because I just deserve that.
Juna Yeah.
Eddie And it's not so bad and not eating true bowls. And, and so with that I thought. Like, I really don't want to go on a quote on a diet. Yeah, but maybe I can assess how much I really want to have something sweet.
Juna Yeah.
Eddie So what I learned. Remind me who did this? We talked about surfing the earth.
Juna Oh, Judd brewer.
Eddie Judd Brewer, and that's us. Oh, it's such a beautiful phrase. Like the idea of, like, okay, the coffee ice cream is, as we all know, carefully tucked away in the downstairs freezer, but it's just 13 steps away, just in case you know that it is not immediately available, but I just have to go down the stairs.
Juna There's these things that, like our legend in the podcast, like you're a freezer and your basement goes back to like six years ago. It's hilarious that it hasn't changed.
Eddie Well, it goes back further than that, but for public consumption. And, and just to really show the what's going on, it also has chocolate chips in it. Yeah. And of course, I put in we know the walnut walnuts because now they've.
Juna Got a health.
Eddie Oh, oh so all right. So but do I need to have this every day. So I tried to do the surfing the urge thing.
Juna Yeah.
Eddie And guess what. Why. Like I'm fine without it. And I can wait to have, you know, a few scoops, like, after dinner. So it's sort of like with my dinner and part of kind of that whole load of protein and fat and and carbohydrates. And so the next thing I'll just share is that, oh, I started to lose a couple of pounds, and then I did the math and I thought, well, I'm probably eating, you know, blah blah, blah, like, you know, 250 calories. And if you do that over a course of.
Juna 2050 calories, less.
Eddie Less. Sorry. By not having it. Sorry, the 250 calories less. And if you start doing the math, I sure I should be losing weight. And then I started projecting and I thought, hey, you know, I'll lose that 11 pounds, but after you lose a few pounds, it stops, it stops and you're like.
Juna Oh darn it.
Eddie WTF? And then I, I went to a wonderful source of information, which was our book Food We Need to Talk, and started going through the chapter on how our bodies adapt.
Juna Yeah.
Eddie And realize that my body's just doing its thing.
Juna It's adapted to the weight loss.
Eddie Yeah, exactly. And and something else is burning up less calories and blah, blah. And.
Juna Can I just say yes? Somebody shared in our Patreon group recently that they found the podcast through the book. They were like, I am so happy I found your book at my library, because that's how I found your podcast. And I was like, oh, because it's always other way around, right? Because the podcast came first. The book is pretty new. It just came out last year. And so, you know, I always think people find the podcast and they get the book through the podcast. But it was so cool. I was like, people are getting the book at the library. And they checked and they have it at my local library at Cambridge. And it was just so cool. Like I was like, oh my gosh, I never.
Eddie Thought I have a request for the listeners. Yeah. Which is ask your local library to get a copy of the book.
Juna Oh, that's so nice.
Eddie And then anyone who wants to read it can go. And for those younger listeners, what you do is you go to this building and you identify yourself and they hands you this thing with paper, and then you sit down. Or you can also go online and it's on audible. But I love the idea of it being freely available through a library. And if you happen to already have the book and you've read through it, of course donate it to your library.
Juna Oh, that's a good idea to look.
Eddie Why not? And, and and if you're inspired by you and I revealing all of our evolution, you know, from listening to the podcast and you buy the book, enjoy it and donate it. I mean, it's all about getting the information out. Libraries are cool. The libraries provide information.
Juna Having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card. You remember that? That's from Arthur.
Eddie From Arthur? Yes, Arthur the aardvark.
Juna Yes, that's the TV show for anybody. Does it now? Okay, before we wrap up the episode, I want to share one more thing that I feel like probably the biggest thing that changed my life from the podcast, and that is when we did our episode on eating disorders in season one of The Potter. So in season one of The Potter, it was only supposed to be ten episodes long. And I remember like, I was like, yeah, I want to do an episode on eating disorders because I thought it was important and I had no idea that, like, I had an eating disorder. I just, like, knew I had a weird relationship with food, you know? And so I went to to interview this expert, and I had like my little microphone. And I was in her office, and I remember sitting there and like everything she was saying, I was like, wait, that's me. Wait. That's me. Wait. That's me. So I don't know. I kind of was like, but I probably don't have one. It probably was just a coincidence, I don't know. And I think the biggest reason I thought I didn't have one was because I wasn't underweight, I wasn't super skinny. I'd never had, you know, my doctor tell me, like you're losing too much weight. I was always at my lowest normal weight. But most of the time I'm quote unquote overweight based on the BMI. So that was why I just like never thought I counted. But then after talking to the eating disorders expert, like literally the end of the interview, I was like, so can I join your practice?
Eddie It's oh, you know. Yeah.
Juna She was like, what's your insurance? Hahahahahahaha. Anyways, long story short, they did take my insurance, unfortunately, but I did get a therapist right after that because of the podcast. And then my treatment for eating disorders has been ongoing. I mean, it lasted maybe 3 or 4 years. Maybe the last thing I did was two years ago. And now I really don't feel like I identify as having an eating disorder, but I really feel like the reason I sought treatment was because of the podcast. And actually and I wrote this in the book, too, in the eating disorder chapter, which is my favorite chapter of the book. I feel like everything I did in the podcast and in the book was because of my eating disorder, because when I would like, write that chapter, when I was like writing the script for that episode, I just felt something in my heart like, this is the most important thing that I'm talking about and the most important information that comes out of this podcast. And so I just feel like that really changed my life, and it obviously took a long time. It took years. But that's what started. It was because of this episode and I don't know, like how long it would have taken me. I'm sure I would have eventually sought treatment, but I don't know how long it would have taken me if I hadn't done that episode on the podcast.
Eddie So, you know, I'm sitting here kind of resonating and having witnessed this and, you know, to some degree lived through it with you as your eyes were opened. And, you know, it's kind of funny. Sometimes people ask like, okay, so I read the part about how you met Yuna, but how many, you know, 65 year old guys are hanging out in there with someone who's their, like, daughter's age. And, you know, aside from the fact that you're one of the funniest and most intelligent people I've ever met, and we get along, there was something else. And I think it's that as I saw you unwrapping the eating disorder, this is what I was dealing with at home with my middle daughter. And for people that are new to the podcast and haven't seen the book, this is all published in graphic detail. And my most favorite chapter is a discussion in the book with my daughter. And it's written me and Becca kind of going at it and asking, so, you know, it's it's interesting. Like this episode, we've talked about kind of facts that we've learned and how it changed our behavior. But, you know, this is the. I'm feeling more emotional, like something shifted. And, you know, she went and was in treatment and has evolved and is, you know, thankfully, you know, quite healthy now. And I think that my ability to talk to her and to kind of receive what she was going through and be open to it, was informed and propelled by our relationship. And you know, we've joked before that, you know, we can talk and we don't have, oh I don't know, 28 years of, of baggage, and prior insults that are not to be forgotten. Right. And so we can sort of go at it and that sort of then enabled me to talk to her and support her as she's gone through her recovery. And if that's what's come of the podcast. Amen. Thank you. Thank you to you. Thank you to her and to all the people that have supported us over the years.
Juna Yes. Thank you to all of you for listening. We are going to continue this conversation because we have so many things we didn't get to. We were like, we don't have enough things to talk about. Of course we run out of time. We can't even talk about everything. So we're going to continue this conversation over on membership. And I just want to say thank you to everyone who contributes to the membership. It is truly the only thing that keeps this podcast going. Like the reason it's been able to go on for so long is because of this membership. It helps to fund the studio time and the production. So we really, really do appreciate it. And if you don't go over there, that's also totally fine. We appreciate you for listening. Over all these years. I have so many people that still messages and review to this day that say, I've been here since day one and I'm like, mind blown that anyone else besides me and you has been here day one. Like.
Eddie Now they're here with that.
Juna We're going to see you guys in the next episode. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. If you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go to food. We Need to talk.com/membership or click the link in our show notes. You can find us on Instagram at food we Need to Talk where we will be showing Eddie's dog soon.
Eddie Oh, you got a new dog. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's. She's coming. Maisie has entered the building.
Juna You can find me on Instagram at the official unit and usage data on YouTube and TikTok. If you want to see my dog. And you can find Eddie.
Eddie Having smaller portions of coffee ice cream, but chocolate chips after dinner.
Juna Nice food we Need to Talk is produced by me and is distributed by Pyrex. We were co-created by Carrie Goldberg, George Hicks, Eddie Phillips, and me.
Eddie For any personal health questions, please consult your health provider. To find out more, go to food. We need to talk.com. Thanks for listening.
Juna For six years.
