The Truth About Seed Oils, Food As Medicine, and RFK Jr. | Kevin Klatt PhD RD
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What is the current state of nutrition?
In this episode, I sit down with Kevin Klatt, PhD and RD, who is a research scientist and instructor at UC Berkeley's Department of Nutrition Sciences and Toxicology. He's earned his PhD in molecular nutrition from Cornell University and completed his dietetic internship at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Basically, he's the guy who actually reads, teaches, and performs the nutrition studies everyone loves to quote. We dive into great detail throughout our conversation, unpacking why nutrition seems messier than ever, focusing specifically on the viral claims around eggs, seed oils, and the food as medicine mantra. Kevin does a great job in laying out the guardrails you can trust amidst all the noise. What I'd like for you to pay special attention to is how he answers my complex questions. He rarely gives a simple soundbite answer like your typical podcast bro guest. Instead, he focuses on the nuance to make sure you're getting the most accurate and unbiased information.
That's what experts are supposed to be doing. Anyway, I hope you learn as much as I did throughout this conversation. Please welcome Dr. Kevin Klatt to the Checkup Podcast. Nutrition. It's become a bit of a buzzword. Least controversial topic. Right? Most people agree nutrition is important, but they agree for vastly different reasons. Participate in vastly different food camps. It used to be left, now it's right, then it's left, then it's right. I think the field of nutrition is the most confusing it's ever been. You're an expert in the field. Ostensibly, yeah. Although people don't like the word expert. I was going to say, don't call me that. But unlike most podcasters these days or health gurus or health podcast guests, you truly are an expert because you've actually put in the time to do the research, to understand what is being said, to understand when someone quotes a research article, what was studied, what was missed, where the limitations are.
What's your gut take on the field of nutrition right now if you were to give a banner for it?
Oh my goodness. I mean, the field of nutrition, I feel like is often very separate from like the popular understanding of nutrition. Like we have an NIH nutrition roadmap that was released a couple of years ago that heavily embraces like precision nutrition, understanding inter-individual variability, understanding more about food composition, how it affects health, both in the longterm and chronic disease. And then in the short term, like how in the hospital do we feed patients better to improve outcomes? Um, I think the popular conception of nutrition is very much what we would think of as nutrition and chronic disease. People are like, nutrition doesn't know anything. It's a very common perception. I'm like, well, we know all the essential nutrients. We do have great, very evidence-based supplementation and feeding programs and things in global health and a lot of implementation science there.
There's a lot we do know in nutrition, but there is just this... I think the methods and nutrition always leave a little bit of uncertainty more than you'd get with drug trials and these sorts of things. How does what I'm eating now affect something that's happening 20 years down the road, long latency periods to chronic diseases before they manifest for the most part? Um, and so, yeah, nutrition, it's, I think there's a lot that gets lost in translation. Um, there's a lot of people, I became a dietician and did my PhD in nutrition, not because I didn't want to write prescriptions, but then I think the public is always looking for a prescription of like how many milligrams of this and how many servings of this. Um, are eggs good or bad?
And it's all like a yes, no thing. And I think anytime your question doesn't have a definitive answer, like it's, it's gonna forever fuel media cycle and people putting out information about it. Um, that seems contrasting to whatever official dietary guidance is and it's a never ending loop.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the current state of nutrition?
0:10–7:31
2
What are the misconceptions about food as medicine?
7:31
3
How do high-fat foods and cholesterol affect health?
4:23–13:28
4
What should you know about misinformation in nutrition?
13:28–21:29
5
Who should you consult for dietary advice?
21:29–27:34
6
What are the differences between nutritionists and dietitians?
27:34–35:09
7
How can diet impact chronic disease management?
35:09–37:58
8
What are the key takeaways about seed oils?
37:58–2:47:51
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Checkup with Doctor Mike
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