Episode 59: 22 Red Flags of a Diet
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Episode Description
In this episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast, Emily and Hannah break down how you can decipher red flags when you hear about a new “nutrition program” and if it’s a diet. Before you start this new lifestyle program your co-worker wanted you to start with them, run through this list to see if it’s something that’ll be sustainable long-term or if it’s just another fad diet. If we missed any red flags, be sure to let us know!
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Participant #1:
I'm Emily. And I'm Hannah. We are best friends and dietitians. We have a goal of challenging nutrition, misinformation and fitness trends with an evidence-based approach. Each episode, we will dish up our thoughts about the latest facts on a popular health related topic. Where are the Up-beet Dietitians!
Participant #1:
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Up-beet Dietitians podcast. Hello, guys. We are going solo today, just Emily and I. And in today's episode, we want to talk about diet red flags. So, like, what makes a diet a diet? How can you tell if it's a diet? So you don't do the diet? We will probably say the word diet a million times. Someone please count and put it in some kind of comment somewhere. How many kids do our diet stay? Yes, like Hannah mentioned, the biggest reason is when you hear about that new diet your neighbor's starting, or you hear about that new diet that your coworkers starting, kind of you can ask these questions, and I think we talked about this in a previous episode and be curious about what they're doing. But to kind of get a better gauge of if this is a diet or lifestyle for you, that might be realistic. But we're going to go into it. And we're excited for this one because there's many of them. I'm already thinking of the name, like, 20 red flags. Oh, my gosh. Probably at least 20. Yeah. But just to kind of get it started, you're kind of like Emily Hannah. If you're new to the podcast, you might already know our opinion. But no, I said that incorrectly. If you're not new to the podcast, you already know our opinion. If you are new, you're probably wondering, Emily Hannah, why do you care if it's a diet? It's because diets don't work. Pretty simple. They just don't work. They are most commonly associated with short term success. It's often times just a severe calorie deficit in one way or another, whatever creative way, they kind of like to make it. And we also have episode called What's So Bad About Dieting? With Kayla Bechman way back when. And we really go into the harms of dieting and kind of more of those cons, a lot more in depth. We will link that episode in the podcast description so you can listen to that as well. But that's not what we're here to talk about today. We are here to talk about what those red flags are, and we have a long list of them, so we're going to get right into it. So first and foremost, first diet red flag is if they promise quick results, lose 20 pounds in one week, or they're almost always weight loss related. It's not usually one's, like, lower your blood sugar today. Like, no, it's always like it's always weight loss for the most part. So if they promise any kind of quick weight loss, that's a red flag. Because even if your goal is weight loss. You get to have that choice to have that goal for yourself. We are weight neutral here, but you get to have that goal anyway if it promises quick weight loss is not a good one because quick weight loss is not how we should be losing weight. If that is your goal. Quick weight loss is not sustainable. Exactly. No. Okay, that's number one. I don't know how we're going to go through this. I guess maybe like back and forth and kind of just like chat on each one a little bit. Yeah. I think for me, some might have more tangents than others, as you know by now. Okay, next red flag. This one is like a sub Tweet, limits food groups, aka keto and plenty of other diets star solution. I forgot about that one. Carnivore, diet, Atkins. They're all just the same thing, basically. In different little ways. Yes. Which is all just a way of creating a calorie deficit. But yeah, if it limits a food group, that's a diet red flag because you don't need to cut out anything to be a healthy human again, even your goal is weight loss. Yeah. Especially like carbs, for example. And that's our body's nutrition. It needs the most of literally. Yeah. Especially when it's a blanket statement for everyone. That's just not individualized. We're all about individualized nutrition here. And I'm not going to just tell everyone one thing based off of maybe one patient. That would not make sense. Right. Recently you have different lots. I don't know. Right. I have a patient who doesn't like to eat breakfast because she just doesn't and does not impact the rest of her day, and she's doing really well. Does that mean I'm going to tell everyone else to also not eat breakfast? No, because it usually is a very helpful thing to include. We have a lot to set on that, actually. But that's another good red flag, which I don't know if we have on here, but if it just gives, like a general rule that you have to follow, that one is probably on here somewhere, but it's got to be on here. We have a lot. Next step. Next one kind of goes that opposite direction. So there's the ones that tell you not to eat a certain food. The other ones that emphasize this food is the best thing in the entire world. It's going to cure cancer. It's going to cure every single disease state. It's going to get rid of all your problems, like the cabbage soup diet or the grapefruit diet. We should not be romanticizing. One food. No, cabbage soup might be fine. Grapefruit might be fine. Those are good things to have. I'm sure they're tasty, actually. I know grapefruit is cabbage. I don't really know. It doesn't sound too great. But anyway, nothing magical about those. And eating just those things in large quantities likely will do more harm than good. When you have a nutrient deficiency. Yes. Variety is important. Yes. Not only for your physical health, but also the mental well being. Oh, you mean mental health is a part of your total well being, but it's not just how much you weigh. What? Okay, next slide. Sounds too good to be true. So the example I have for this one is like the ones that say, like, lose weight while you sleep or lose weight while eating more than ever. Those are claims that are likely too good to be true and therefore are likely not going to happen for you. Yeah. If you saw something on, like, a magazine where someone lost however much weight in whatever time or their body completely changed, and there's probably something else going on there. And if it's too good to be true, it is. Believe them. Trust your gut. Trust your gut with that. I don't think I've ever seen a time where a claim is upheld. It argues.
Participant #1:
Something I always talk about, too. Is it's kind of boring to just generally eat what's healthy for you? It's not very exciting. It's mostly just like eating consistently, getting enough groceries every week if you can. Like eating fruits and veggies when you can, it's not going to be this magical food or like cut out this to do whatever. It's going to be kind of boring, actually. And that's a good thing because then you have more brain space for other things besides just the food that you're thinking about. 24/7. Yeah, exactly. Cool. Next red flag is going to be good and bad foods. And this might not be they've been a little bit more tricky with this nowadays. They know how to hide it a little bit better because we're out here scouting things out for you guys. So good versus bad foods can also be hidden in forms. Or like the term I'm looking for, I'm thinking camouflage disguise. Like camouflage disguised in the form of points. One food is more points than a different food or a traffic light system where we all love that red, yellow, and green food where you have to eat less red and eat more green. Looking at you, new. Yeah, those are other forms of good versus bad food. Likes to be a little bit more sneaky with it, but yeah, and they'll advertisement as we don't say good versus bad foods, but there's that psychological component. When you know there's something like a food you should eat more of or they tell you to eat more of, you're going to view that more as a good food. And they have something as a comparison exactly like Weight Watchers and the points. There's zero point foods, aka good foods, or there's foods that have points, aka in your mind, bad foods. How are you going to feel when you eat a zero point food versus when you eat a food that has like 15 points? They say you can have whatever you want. They say all foods fit, but you're going to feel a lot different when you eat some zero point cottage cheese versus a 10-20 point burger. Psychologically, physically, you can have both and be just fine. Yeah. Mentally, you likely are going to feel some guilt because of that self inflicted good bad point thing. Okay, our next one I think of, like, Optavia for this one discourages exercise or just doesn't include exercise, or even says you don't even need to exercise. You can just lose weight by eating these foods. No need to do any kind of movement. And while it can be true that you can lose weight exercising, if that is your goal, to lose weight, exercise is a very important part of our health, physical and mental. And even if you could lose weight without exercise, it doesn't necessarily mean it was a good thing. Yeah, we kind of have to reflect on the purpose behind how we view exercise. Like, is this a means to get some movement in and like, build muscle or my mental health kind of that? Or is it a means to lose weight kind of having some type of reflection on that? And then on top of everything, and then on top of everything, the diet will tell you, too. There's a lot going on there, like Octovia. They specifically say the reason why you shouldn't do much exercise with them is because the diet is so restrictive. You're eating 800 calories a day. Of course you shouldn't be exercising. You are burning that and then some just by being a human being. So you need a lot more if you're going to be exercising. They can't afford for you to be passing out because their health coaches wouldn't know what to do if you did because they're not trained medical professionals. They're just part of a pyramid scheme to be an episode. Yeah, go check out that episode. We go all in depth on it. We buy reviews for a lot of these, so if there's something that you hear us talk about, we probably have a review on it. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Next one. My favorite one is if they sell a product with it, like a supplement or a book, most times, often than not, they don't care about your health. And I mean this in a way that I don't want. I do want you to get upset at the system and whatnot, but it can be really hard to hear when maybe someone you idolize or whoever it is, some influencer, they start promoting this new program and they're like, I don't know. No one promotes anything else, really, other than weight loss, unless you're like our pharmaceutical company. But obviously they've got all the fish to fry. It's just weight loss. But oftentimes they'll be like, Oh, buy my book. And it only works if you read my book, or the best way, or even their program, just what it encompasses. You have to purchase a supplement like this protein shake or this protein powder in order for it to work. And they're like, you can do it without. But the best way to have results is to purchase this. And they are trying to get your money. They are not trying to help you. From a health standpoint. Yes. And like, Emily and I own our own businesses. We also own a business together. And so we are trying to make money, too. Of course we want to feed ourselves, but it's about how you go about it. Like I always said, if you are saying you have to take a supplement or else you are not going to be successful. Red flag. Or if you don't read my book, you don't know what I'm talking about. Right. As a sub Tweet, right? I know you're talking about I know what you're talking about. We can't say the name because we'll probably get sued. I'm kind of scared. They know it's wrong, but I know exactly. They know they're listening to this. But if they want they don't believe in evidence based nutrition, non diet culture, all food fit, which is hilarious. As can I say that's their dietitian. I can say that. There's a lot of us out there. Yeah. People die and we're not all good. That does for any profession. Yeah, that's true. They're not all going to be good. And there are people who tell me that we're good and that's okay. But that's one individual we should have her on.
Participant #1:
Okay. Anyway, before we get to see let's go on to the next one. The next one is if the diet promotes low calorie, like a low calorie goal, even if it is some dietitian, trainer, doctor, whoever, prescribing a calorie goal for you. If it's too low, if it's like, a low calorie goal, that's a red flag. I don't want to generalize here because everyone's calories are so insanely different and even day to day is going to be so different. I don't love giving, like, a calorie goal out there, but I will say that, speaking again, very generally, most adults, most adults definitely need at least at least more than 1500 calories a day. And there are tons and tons and tons of, like, diet plans, trainers, nutritionists, even dietitians who are giving out much lower calorie goals than that. So red flag. Unless you're like a sedentary, four foot, 897 year old, you probably need more than 200 calories a day. I was thinking, like, I don't like futures like that. I don't know if I'm 97 and just like, vibing drinking some, like, tequila. Yeah. Not having a care in the world, I'm like, I hope I'm done working by then. Oh, dear Lord, I better be like, 80 years retired by then. That's too long. 80, 50 years retired. I'm going to retire in my 40s. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, we have a lot of work to do well. Yeah, but I believe I believe in us too. And we can be 97 together. If you guys make us go viral. Emily and I can retire at age 40, be 70, and then we can just drink tequila. Tour 97 with our dog cafe that we're going to open. Yeah. Oh my gosh. We haven't told them that we're going to open a dog cafe. We decided we have no idea where, when, or how, but we're going to hear it first. Yeah, we're going to rescue dogs, and then you can come visit our cafe and you can adopt a dog. It's going to be an airbnb, too. So you can stay there and go up a coffee shop outside. Yeah, or like, attached. There'll be somewhere near it. Yeah. So stay tuned. And they're going to have the podcast playing on the intercom. You can have a little history corner, like, get to know the podcast. And then we could do the first microphone. Oh, gosh, I have it right here. It's not good. The museum. Oh, my gosh. We will not play the podcast. No, I promise. We'll play some classic music, but I thought that would be hilarious if we did do that. Or maybe in the corner, it could be playing like, a little teleprompt or like a little video action. Or they could make it as a museum airbnb museum. Cafe. With rescue dogs. With rescue dogs that you can drink coffee with and pet dogs. It can be like a jukebox where, like, you put on a nickel and then you get to picking up that is so funny. Okay, let us know your feedback. What do you guys want to see in our cafe? Yeah. Museum/dog shop. The next red flag for diets is if they encourage specific food combinations. And I will make a disclaimer here because I'm very basic. Oh, my gosh, it's storming here. Suddenly. It's like my sky is green. I don't know what's going on. Oh, that's not a good thing. No, it's not. Oh, I heard that. Oh my gosh. I shouldn't be next to a window. But, you know, it's fine. You guys matter. Emily is risking her life for this podcast, but the disclaimer with the specific food combinations is from like, a way back when, like, a blood sugar stability standpoint. We talk about, like, adding protein and meals and not having a carb by itself. And like Hannah says, don't eat a carb naked. Yeah, that's different than this. We're not saying, like, how many carbs, how much protein, specific type of carbs. It's like, very general. It's more so the ones that are like, add chia seeds to your water for improved digestion and weight loss. And I actually saw a video about this today everywhere. It's the internal shower. I'm like, what? Does that sound awful? If I heard the words internal shouting syndrome, then the last thing I would want to do is try that thing out. If I heard the phrase internal shower. No, I do not want anyone cleaning my insides. Please stay out of there. I get it now. I was thinking, like, wait a second. It's like cleaning you out. I get it. I was thinking, like the physical mechanics of showering. How balls? No, like how the water falls. Thinking, like, just falling through your digestive tract. That makes way more sense. Like it's cleaning your insides. That's what my interpretation was. But that just sounds like diarrhea. I mean, it's literally what it is. It's like what any detox is. Yeah, that's actually our last one on here. That makes you poop your brains out. If any diet makes you poop your brains out, that's our fresh plaque.
Participant #1:
Diarrhea does not need to be part of your no, we're not trying to have diarrhea regularly. No. You will become dehydrated, and it's not going to be good now. And you will probably experience some type of nutrient malabsorption. Yes. So put your brains out, please. Okay. Our next one, I think is very interesting, and I used to be a culprit of this. Evidence of a diet is based on before and after photos and other testimonials. And the big point here is that you cannot assess someone's health just by looking at them. So if you go to Octavia's website and you see a bunch of before and after photos as a way to get you to buy or become part of their pyramid scheme, that's not a good thing. Just because people lost weight onto the doesn't mean it's a good, healthy diet to be following. Yeah. Bonnie shape does not equate to help. No, this goes for all aspects. You can't determine that by a picture. You can't determine that by video or anything. Even to video. Like, if they even say, this works for me, I feel great. Just because someone else said that does not mean that it's going to work for you. Exactly. Yeah. Especially when it's so heavy on those before and after pictures. Oh, my gosh. Because that just perpetuates the idea that weight loss equals success. Yes. Can we look at their labs? Can we look at their mental health? Can we look at, like, anthropometrics or more body composition distribution? It's not just weight loss. Skinnier is better. Exactly. I think we're talking to Katie, and she's talking about, like, this thin, focused society. We associate them with, like, success, and we're trying to break away from that because that's just not true. You don't know what's going on that person's life. You don't know how they lost weight also. Right. You don't even know if in those before and after. This is what always gets me, is if it actually was opted for. I was just going to say that. What if they weren't even didn't even lose weight with Optavia? What if they just lost weight somewhere else or another way? Yeah, you don't know. They could have been doing something else. Maybe they were training. Maybe they didn't even do opt to video, but they started working with a personal trainer. They went from no, exercise. Exercise. Like exercising. Right. Like, we don't know because the photo not evidence. Which is kind of like the next one, too. Yes. This next one makes me so upset. Gwyneth Paltrow, Kylie Jenner. Like, the whole Kardashian. Just because some person on the Internet told you it worked for them does not mean you can apply that to everyone. I mean, anybody else does that. Of course celebrities are the worst for this. Yeah. Or they'll promote some books. They're getting paid to promote that. They're getting paid so much money and they have so many people following them that fall for it, which is just terrible. Yeah. They are making bank off that. And I can probably promise you they aren't doing it. Or that, like, athlete especially. Oh, my gosh. The athlete ones. When there's, like, endorsements yes. Around things. Normally, those are a little bit more like they're not as wild because they're normally working with a sports dietitian or, like, it would be something, like, outrageous that they're like, you cannot promote this. But just because a celebrity said that worked for them does not even mean they're doing it. Doesn't even mean they're doing it. They are getting paid 80% of the time. I don't know their lives. I can't say 100, but 80% of the time, it is they are making some money off of that. I highly doubt Kim Kardashian is taking those, like, sugar bear gummies every day. No. Her hair and skin looks good because she's rich and she can pay someone to make it look good. Lots of resources that we do not have access to. But you do have access to sugar bags. Let's just push that up on people. So dumb. Okay, next one. It is a diet red flag. If the diet claims there is a best way to do something like Emily and I just said or have been saying or have said a million times before today, it's individualized health. Individualized. There's no one best way that is universal in terms of nutrition to say that cutting carbs is the best way to manage blood sugar for those who have diabetes. That may be true for some people, but definitely not for everybody. Blanket statements. Not my cup of tea. Don't fall for them. They are universally a red flag. Yes. Which is a blanket statement to say that. Yeah. Our next red flag. They replace meals with supplements. So that's kind of going all the way back to, like, if they tell you you need this supplement, but also if they're telling you just tonight food, like Herbalife, Optavia. There's such a complexity. Psychology. Yes. All of those eating is so much more than just nutrients in your body. There's also the process of chewing our foods socializing. Like having time to sit down during a busy workday and eat. It's not just like, some quick shake that you can do. I think the only time I really ever will recommend a shake, like a protein shake, if you need a snack or don't like breakfast or something like that, where it's kind of just a supplement. Yeah, a supplement. Not a replacement. No, yeah, it's exactly that. It's telling you straight up what it is. It's not called replacement. They are, though. They have, like, meal replacements. Right. Problem. But they shouldn't be replacing meals. No, they're supposed to supplement your leg. Yeah. Unless, like I said, it's like you would typically skip breakfast. You find it to be a negative experience for you. Then by all means replace that skipping with a replacement, but do not eat your delicious balanced dinner and replace that with a protein supplement. Yeah. Eat your brows thinner. You feel more satisfied. Yes. Okay. This next one I'm like, thinking about intuitive eating. This one I feel like, doesn't always apply. I think it's in conjunction with other red flags. Okay. It may not on its own be a red flag. So this one is what they call a lifestyle. So, yeah, there's plenty of things. Like, Emily and I live a certain lifestyle, and we don't think that's diity, but, like, if it's called a lifestyle but it has other red flags, it kind of just makes it more of a red flag. Yes. This is definitely like, there's already some questionable things going on, and then you add this on top of it and they tell you to commit. I feel like it's also the time commitment component of it. Do you need to dramatically plan your life out around meals? And are you thinking about this constantly? That's the next one. That's the next one. It's inflexible. You can't ever go on vacation or, like, you only get to eat optavia's $4 a month foods. There's no flexibility at all. If your friends want to go out for dinner on Friday, you have to say no because it's not opt to be approved. No one wants to live like that. Like, miss out on so much of life. All that just for some weight loss. There are other ways to go about that, if that is your goal. Next one. Some of our favorite buzzwords that are diet-y red flags. So super foods once again, romanticizing those different foods because they're so amazing from every whatever they do, they'll cure everything or boosting metabolism. Oh, my gosh. Eating boosts your metabolism. I don't even know if that even makes sense. But eating healthy metabolism, there's the thermic effect of food where when you eat food, it actually burns calories to digest that food and then detox. Detox is like my trigger word. The only detox you should do is, like, a social media Detox or like a Detox relationship Detox. Relationship detox. Yes. We support those. Food wise, exercise wise. Your body is handling that for you AOkay. If you've got kidneys, liver, lungs, skin, organs, intestines, your body is handling that for you. Oh, yeah. Okay, next one. This goes back to evidence. If the conclusions that the diet makes are based on either like a singular study or studies done on rodents because rodents are humans, for example, if the diet says this breakthrough finding changes everything based on one study, like, no other studies to support that, that's like a one off chance. Like, any one could likely make one study that proves one particular point. Yeah, but we think a pool of evidence to make something to be more likely, true or effective always makes me like people. And this is something fun you can also do when people always love to get into arguments with healthcare professionals online is they like, will cite their sources, check that source. Is that a human study? Is that like all single case study? Is that a single, like
Participant #1:
yeah. You don't even need to know all the different types of research articles. All you really need to check for is what is this subject? Obviously, there's reasons we have researchers to interpret all this. Just get kind of for you to be able to interpret that, like, check the subject and then check the year and from there on out, I feel like you can determine a lot of that. Yeah. Next one is kind of similar. The diet maybe sounds scientific, but it's actually evidence based. Like the blood type diet. It sounds super fancy if you have type A blood to cut out this, that, and the other. But that's not evidence based at all. It's not a thing. Well, it's a thing, unfortunately, but it's not an evidence based thing. Yes, not evidence based. They throw in a lot of fancy words or just make it sound like it applies to all these different metabolic processes or I don't know, they just throw science words around without it actually being true. Cool. The next one of my favorite ones, when they are hostile towards science, when they advertise, they don't want you to know the truth, or this is what they're not telling you, or doctors. I don't even know who they target. I don't even know they conspiracy theory. They just say they I'm like, who is they? I don't know if the government isn't telling us weight loss things, I mean, at this point, who knows? But whenever these diets or whatever these programs attack someone, like, they don't want you to know whatever it is, it's probably not evidence based for a reason. And it almost creates this, like, us versus them type, which is then it becomes like a cult. Yes. I like Keto, I don't want you to know that carbs are actually what's going to kill you. Oh, no, it's fine. What's actually killing you is the stress from not eating an apple or from like if you eat an apple, the stress that you overeat your 30 carbs for the day. Okay. Almost every episode turns into like a Keto fasting. Well, keto is still around. We're going to keep going at it until it dies or at least reinvents itself into the next thing. I guess it kind of already has its carnivore diet. Yeah, it's already transforming. It's more extreme, of course. Okay, our next one we're wrapping up here, which only have a couple more. If the diet gives a timeline, that's a red flag. So it says like, seven day detox or four week weight loss challenge, your health should be like, for life. Should it be like lifelong detox? No, don't do that. But like, intuitive eating. I mean, I also are obviously very biased towards intuitive eating, but with that, intuitive eating is not a destination. It's like a whole journey working towards this place of piece of food and all that. We shouldn't give like, timelines on when you're going to be intuitive eater, so to speak, or things like that, because that's a diet red flag. If a diet gives you a timeline of when you'll reach that goal red flag. Yeah. Everyone works at their own pace. It's not individualized.
Participant #1:
OK. The next one is going to be if they promise weight loss in a specific part of your body. Like examples get rid of getting rid of the cellulite or losing inches on your waist or shrinking your thighs. I swear we talked about this before and like, maybe you have. That's what I was thinking. Where you can't control
Participant #1:
our body, resist change, especially when we're trying to manipulate that body composition wise. It's not just going to roll over and do whatever we want. It kind of gets to decide if we lost occurring or body composition changes are occurring. It's going to decide where it happens first. You can't really target a specific area. There isn't evidence supporting that. Yeah, and I needed to hear this ten years ago, so I'm going to say it in case someone else needs to hear. This cellulite is absolutely normal and fine. And yes, most females and even some males have it. It's just like a part of it being a human. Yes. It's not bad. It's something die. Culture is demonized to manipulate us into thinking we need to get rid of it. And then they'll like photoshop, pictures and magazines to make it look like none of these models do have it when it's very normal and it's fine. It's not based on like, health, first of all, or even like your body size. Like, people in smaller bodies have it. People on larger bodies have it. It's highly genetic is what it's really, really comes down to for a lot of people. Yeah, diet culture sucks. Well, the last one I kind of already told you, if it makes you poop your brains out, that's a diet red flag. You should not be pooping more than normal just for the sake of weight loss. Yeah. Okay. I'm sure there's something we didn't think of, so if you guys have any others, they will do a part too. Yeah, we knock out a lot, but I'm sure the Internet will surprise us. Yeah. So I guess final thoughts are take care of this list into account and when you hear about something someone's trying kind of reflect on, is this a diet? And will this be sustainable and kind of what are the motivations behind it as well? Like, do they want me to be successful long term? Do they want just my money? When am I going to get out of it? Here's a thunder, by the way. It is, like, so loud. That's crazy. I'm actually in the middle of a tsunami. Oh, gosh, it's like so dark and storming and flashing. We've got some kind of, like I don't know if it's a warning or like a watch, but we have some kind of thing, too. I bet it's going to hit you first and then it's going to come to me. Oh, gross. Okay, well, let's finish up Ben so it doesn't get swooped up by the wind. So our bonus question today, which I'm excited for, what is the best form to eat a potato? Emily oh, my gosh. I just saw the lighting splash in my screen. Oh, my gosh. Do you see that? I see it.
Participant #1:
Okay. I'm unsafe. No, I'm fine. I've probably gone through worse. I thought long and hard about this, and I have a ranking. They're on the same levels because I was like, these two other ones deserve recognition. But in third place for me, it's going to be potato chips. I love potato chips. I love things that are salty and crunchy. Like, I love potato chips. And there are so many flavors. Oh, my gosh, it's amazing. Amazing. Number two is going to be French fries. One, that's a huge category, but like, French fries are incredible. Didn't we do a best French fry episode? We did, we did a while back. That's a while ago. Number one for me, and I feel like this is going to be very boring. My racing score is going to be mashed potatoes. That is so controversial. Yeah. I don't really eat mashed potatoes often just because I just don't eat them often, but I love mashed potatoes and gravy or sweet potato casserole. Mashed potatoes I could eat all day, any day. And the only reason I think they're up there is because of the texture. I love the smoothness of it. It's like, so satisfying. And different types
Participant #1:
of ball in. Just so you guys can know what we go through for this podcast, we're going to not edit that out. Yeah. Normally it's pretty quiet around here, but not today. Yeah, those are my top three. Okay. Very controversial. Yeah, the mashed potatoes are very controversial because I don't agree with those who are critiquing, but some will say that it's kind of boring. Texture is just, like, not exciting. They're really good. They're definitely not in my top three, but they're really good. I totally agree with your potato chips and fries ranking. I might have to go with, like, half browns for my first choice, like a Trader Joe's. Like, formed fried hash browns are so good. So good. I also love the diner style where they're like
Participant #1:
yes. But I was thinking, what else are there? There's, like, au gratin there's. Baked potato. Baked potato is not a favorite of mine. No, that's, like, at the bottom of the list. Yeah. I turn it into mashed potato. Yeah. And there's, like, all kinds of fries, of course, like right wedge steak, curly
Participant #1:
vodka. Oh, my gosh. Okay. I don't know how it ended, but I brought up vodka. I don't know if you heard that because it's a potato, isn't it? Okay, Emily was gone before that. I don't know how we're going to edit this, but the storm kicked Emily out of the podcast, so it took my WiFi for a second. We're going to swiftly end this before Emily dies. Yes. Before I lose connection with the world again. But yeah. Okay, cool. Okay, guys. All right. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you guys next week. Bye, guys. Bye.
