November 8, 2019

Sal Di Stefano: Think Twice Before Going Vegan, Losing Fat Without Counting Calories, Thoughts on “The Game Changers” Documentary, and More – The Genius Life with Max Lugavere

Stop counting calories. Instead:
- Eat more nutrient-dense foods
- Consume more protein
- Exercise
- Optimize your sleep
Processed foods are designed to make you want to eat more – avoid them!
Think twice before going vegan. Here’s why:
- Going vegan requires more meal planning
- Nutrient deficiencies are quite high among vegans
- When a person eliminates eggs, milk, and meat from their diet, they’re also eliminating the most non-processed foods from their diet
Going vegan may help lessen climate change, but…
- “The worst thing we can do to the planet is to produce unhealthy humans” – Sal Di Stefano

Sal Di Stefano (IG: @mindpumpsal) is one of three hosts of Mind Pump, perhaps the best fitness podcast in existence
Host: Max Lugavere (IG: @maxlugavere ), author of the New York Times bestselling book Genius Foods

Calorie-counting is an obsessive and a poor approach to diet
- “Watch out for body-obsessed advice-givers who focus exclusively on calorie-counting” – Sal Di Stefano
The 4 stages of dietary learning:
- 1) Unconscious incompetence – You don’t know what you shouldn’t eat
- 2) Conscious incompetence – You know what you shouldn’t eat but do it anyway
- 3) Conscious competence – You have to think about eating the right foods
- 4) Unconscious competence (the goal) – You don’t have to think, you don’t want unhealthy foods
Stop counting calories. Instead:
- Eat more nutrient-dense foods
- Optimize your sleep
- Increase your protein intake
  - (Protein is the most satiating macronutrient, and also the most minimally processed part of your diet)
- Exercise
Counting calories is a misguided notion – behavior modification is the true goal
- Willpower only goes so far

The obesity epidemic became a problem in the 1970s when heavily processed foods were brought onto the scene
- Lots of money goes into making processed foods super palatable – the way they taste & smell, how the wrapper feels, etc.)
  - “They’re designed to make us eat more, so we eat more!” – Sal Di Stefano
Takeaways:
- Processed foods are designed to make you eat more – avoid them!
- Consume more whole natural foods
- Don’t snack while distracted ( i.e., when watching TV)
- Don’t keep processed snacks in the house – create a barrier

Studies show that when sugar is replaced with artificial sweeteners people don’t lose weight
- Because people believe they’re eating “healthier” with artificial sweeteners, they eat more

The Game Changers connects the vegan diet with morality and ethics (“Eat this way. Otherwise, you’re a bad person.”)
No diet is right for everyone
- “The documentary could push people to eat in a way that is not good for their body” – Sal Di Stefano
  - After watching the documentary, people may eliminate animal products from their diet, resulting in malnutrition
- A vegan diet may work well for a subset of people, but not for the whole population
The documentary also makes the claim that being a vegan helps lessen climate change
- That may be true in one sense, but in another: “The worst thing we can do to the planet is to produce unhealthy humans” – Sal Di Stefano
  - “At the end of the day, the animal you have to take care of the most is you. A healthy you has more potential for doing good in the world.”

Going vegan requires more meal planning – vegans need a wide range of nutrients from limited sources
Nutrient deficiencies are quite high among vegans
When a person eliminates eggs, milk, and meat from their diet, they’re also eliminating the most non-processed foods from their diet
- (Compare the ingredient list on a beef burger and a plant-based burger)

Proteins: plant vs animal
The most complete set of essential amino acids are found in animal proteins
- Essential amino acids = the ones your body can’t make

Metabolism is complex!
- Food affects you differently on a day to day basis
- No two people respond to the same food in the same way