Diet, Meat and Ultra-Processed Foods | Dr David Katz

The Proof with Simon Hill

Simon Hill

Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Education

4.9 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 121 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What does balance really mean for diet, and why is nuance so often lost in nutrition debates? In this episode, I sit down again with Dr David Katz to explore diet quality, ultra-processed foods, supplements, and the broader links between human and planetary health. In this episode, we cover: Why balance is the key to diet quality Beef, ethics, and planetary health Keto and carnivore, the rise of anecdotes online Ultra-processed foods and why they drive overeating Supplements, evidence, controversies, and David’s personal approach A grounded and insightful discussion on how to cut through the noise and focus on what really matters for long-term health. You can connect with Dr David Katz on LinkedIn, Facebook, and X (Twitter). To learn more about his work, visit davidkatzmd.com, explore Diet ID, and discover the True Health Initiative. The Critical Role of Diet in Chronic Disease and Longevity (00:00:00) What Does a High-Quality Diet Actually Mean? (00:05:03) Why Balance Is the Essence of Diet Quality (00:12:07) What Does a Balanced Diet Look Like in Practice? (00:20:30) Why Should We Eat Less Beef? (00:23:44) Plant-Based vs Omnivore Diets: Which Is Healthier? (00:30:25) Are Keto and Carnivore Diets Healthy Long-Term? (00:38:49) How Can We Fight Nutrition Misinformation? (00:45:56) How Ultra-Processed Foods Hijack Appetite and Drive Overeating (01:00:12) How Do We Tell Good vs Bad Ultra-Processed Foods? (01:10:32) Can Reformulated Ultra-Processed Foods Improve Public Health? (01:19:04) How Measuring Diet Quality Could Transform Public Health (01:26:50) How Diet ID Measures and Improves Diet Quality (01:31:15) Do Supplements Work and Which Ones Are Worth Taking? (01:43:11) Lessons From 40 Years in Medicine and Public Health (01:52:14) Want to support the show? The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also support the show by leaving a review on the Apple Podcast app and sharing your favourite episodes with friends and family. This episode is brought to you by: 38TERA Consider 38TERA's DMN prebiotic supplement a daily multivitamin for your gut. Formulated by yours truly and gastroenterologist Dr Will Bulsiewicz. Use code THEPROOF for a discount at checkout. Function Health Take charge of your health with advanced blood testing and personalised insights. Function Health provides a practical solution to track key health markers such as cholesterol, blood sugar, and more. For the first 1,000 listeners, new members get a $100 credit when signing up. Head to functionhealth.com/simonhill to claim your credit. Only available to those living in the United States. Shopify Shopify, the world's leading e-commerce platform, helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet’s best-converting check out–up to 36% better compared to other leading e-commerce platforms. To boost your conversion rate, and grow your business, sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/proof. Eight Sleep Upgrade your sleep with the Pod 5 Ultra by Eight Sleep. Clinically validated to deliver up to 1 extra hour of quality sleep per night through temperature control and biometric tracking. Use code THEPROOF for $350 off at eightsleep.com/theproof. Try it risk-free for 30 days, with worldwide shipping. Simon Hill, MSc, BSc (Hons) Creator of theproof.com Host of The Proof with Simon Hill Author of The Proof is in the Plants Subscribe & Connect: YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Instagram: @simonhill Twitter: @theproof Facebook: The Proof with Simon Hill Nourish your gut with my Plant-Based Ferments Guide and download my Two-Week Meal Plan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	All righty friends, welcome back to The Proof. Today my guest is Dr. David Katz, a leading physician, nutrition researcher, and public health advocate.
0:10.0	In a world full of diet wars, viral anecdotes and endless headlines, David has built his career on helping people separate signal from noise.
0:20.0	In this wide-s wide sweeping conversation, we explore
0:22.5	the common ground that all healthy diets share, the risks and nuances of ultra-processed foods,
0:29.6	the role of supplements, and the bigger picture of how science can better translate into improved
0:35.5	public health. Whether your keto, plant-based or somewhere in
0:39.4	between, this episode will leave you with practical, evidence-based insights for eating well. Please
0:45.7	enjoy. For those who perhaps didn't catch our last episode or may not be familiar with your
0:56.2	background, can you quickly remind us of your qualifications and how you've spent your
1:02.2	career in nutrition medicine and public health education?
1:06.3	Sequential residences in internal medicine, preventive medicine, public health.
1:13.0	And my career-long focus has been on the prevention of chronic diseases.
1:19.2	And in particular, leveraging the power of diet, nutrition, and lifestyle to prevent
1:25.6	chronic disease in adults and children alike.
1:28.9	And I've done that across the expanse of what I typically refer to as the academic physician's
1:33.7	triathlon of teaching research patient care.
1:36.8	So did a lot of teaching at the Yale Schools of Medicine and Public Health for many years,
1:41.2	saw patients for 30 years, and founded the Yale Prevention Research Center, which I directed for over 20 years, saw patients for 30 years, and founded the Yale Prevention Research Center,
1:46.8	which I directed for over 20 years where we did clinical research, both randomized control
1:52.2	trials and community-level intervention projects where we are testing our ability to essentially
1:58.4	take what we know and turn it into good in the real world,
2:01.7	which is really the sticking point for so much of prevention research. It's not that we don't
	...

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