886. Put "GLP-1" on a label and you can sell almost anything right now: supplements, snacks, drink powders, even a gadget that sits next to your toilet.

Some of these products are designed for people taking GLP-1 medications, who can have real nutritional needs. Others promise to boost your body's own GLP-1 as a path to weight loss. That second pitch is a lot shakier, and the reason comes down to what these medications are and how they work.

Monica separates the science from the marketing:

• What GLP-1 is, and what this gut hormone does after you eat
• Why semaglutide, tirzepatide, and retatrutide aren't technically "GLP-1s," and what receptor agonists, dual agonists, and triple agonists are
• The more accurate names the medical community has proposed for this drug class, and why none of them has stuck
• How fermentable soluble fiber feeds your gut microbiome, produces short-chain fatty acids, and raises natural GLP-1
• Why nobody was talking about boosting natural GLP-1 until these medications took off
• A bathroom device that estimates your fiber intake from the air around your toilet, and why it doesn't measure GLP-1 at all
• Why these medications don't treat a GLP-1 deficiency
• Why your natural GLP-1 breaks down within minutes while semaglutide stays active for days, and what that difference means for appetite and weight loss
• Why eating more fiber is still a good idea, even if it won't do what the label implies

Nutrition science you can trust, in plain English.

Have a food or nutrition question for a future episode? Email nutrition@quickanddirtytips.com. To book Monica for a live or virtual event, visit wellnessworkshere.com.

New to Nutrition Diva? Check out our special Spotify playlist for a collection of the best episodes curated by our team and Monica herself!

Follow Nutrition Diva on Facebook and subscribe to the newsletter for more diet and nutrition tips.

Find out about Monica's keynotes and other programs at WellnessWorksHere.com

Nutrition Diva is a part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

885. You need choline every day. Nobody can tell you exactly how much. There's no RDA for choline, because there isn't enough data to set one. What we have instead is an estimate — and it traces back largely to a single study that enrolled only men. The numbers for women were scaled down from there, mostly by body size.

Choline is an essential nutrient a lot of people have never heard of. Your liver makes some of it, but not enough, so the rest has to come from food. It's needed to build phosphatidylcholine and the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and it plays an outsized role in brain development before birth and in early childhood.

Monica walks through what's known and what isn't:

• Why choline gets grouped with the B vitamins even though it isn't one
• What severe deficiency does to the liver, and what recent research links low intake to in older adults
• Why there's no RDA for choline, and what an Adequate Intake is actually based on
• How estrogen changes the picture, and why premenopausal women may need less than men rather than more
• Why pregnancy may call for more than the current recommendation, and why most prenatal vitamins leave choline out or include very little
• What ACOG advises for women who are pregnant or trying to conceive
• Where choline shows up in food, from egg yolks and liver to soybeans, mushrooms, and cruciferous vegetables
• Why falling short of the Adequate Intake isn't the same as being deficient
• The prostate cancer findings, and why a nutrient that supports healthy cell division can behave differently in someone who already has cancer
• The TMAO question, and why fish raises TMAO more than eggs or beef do
• Who might reasonably consider a supplement, and why more isn't better

Choline Content of Common Foods

Nutrition science you can trust, in plain English.

Have a food or nutrition question for a future episode? Email nutrition@quickanddirtytips.com. To book Monica for a live or virtual event, visit wellnessworkshere.com.

New to Nutrition Diva? Check out our special Spotify playlist for a collection of the best episodes curated by our team and Monica herself!

Follow Nutrition Diva on Facebook and subscribe to the newsletter for more diet and nutrition tips.

Find out about Monica's keynotes and other programs at WellnessWorksHere.com

Nutrition Diva is a part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

884. Your doctor can write you a prescription for a statin or a blood pressure medication. What if they could also prescribe fresh vegetables, and your health insurance paid for them?

That’s one of the central ideas behind the Food Is Medicine movement, and cardiologist Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian is one of its leading voices. In his new book, “Food Is Medicine: Healing Our Bodies, Nourishing Our Minds, and Transforming Our Food System,” he argues that diet is the leading driver of chronic disease in the US and that it can also be part of the treatment.

Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN, talks with Dr. Mozaffarian about:

• What “food is medicine” means, and what it doesn’t
• How produce prescriptions and medically tailored meals and groceries work, and how they differ from SNAP
• Promising results from pilot programs serving people with type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, and high-risk pregnancies
• Why opening grocery stores in food deserts didn’t change how people ate
• What car safety and anti-smoking efforts can teach us about changing the food system
• How much nutrition training doctors need, and where registered dietitians fit in
• Why a healthy diet is more about adding good food than cutting out bad food

Nutrition science you can trust, in plain English.

Have a food or nutrition question for a future episode? Email nutrition@quickanddirtytips.com. To book Monica for a live or virtual event, visit wellnessworkshere.com.

Related episodes:

735 – A provocative new study on ultra-processed foods

334 – Is the Mediterranean Diet all it's cracked up to be?

New to Nutrition Diva? Check out our special Spotify playlist for a collection of the best episodes curated by our team and Monica herself!

Follow Nutrition Diva on Facebook and subscribe to the newsletter for more diet and nutrition tips.

Find out about Monica's keynotes and other programs at WellnessWorksHere.com

Nutrition Diva is a part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.