In this episode of the ThriveHer podcast, an in-depth analysis is conducted on the historical and scientific missteps that have led to widespread misconceptions regarding nutrition and its impact on women's health, particularly during the perimenopausal phase. We delve into the origins of the food pyramid, a dietary guide that has been criticized for its lack of scientific rigor and its foundation on moralistic rather than biological principles. The episode posits that these antiquated guidelines have misled generations, resulting in a public health crisis characterized by rampant obesity and metabolic disorders. We explore the evolution of dietary recommendations, examining the influential figures and events that have shaped our understanding of nutrition. The discussion takes a critical look at the moral crusades of the late 19th century, particularly the role of John Harvey Kellogg, whose dietary philosophies were driven by a desire to impose strict moral codes rather than to promote genuine health. This historical lens reveals the extent to which cultural biases have infiltrated scientific discourse, leading to the promotion of grain-heavy diets that fail to meet the biological needs of individuals. The episode culminates in a robust advocacy for a paradigm shift towards a more holistic and biologically informed approach to nutrition. We emphasize the importance of anchoring one's diet in high-quality proteins and healthy fats, while utilizing carbohydrates judiciously. By rejecting outdated dietary dogmas and embracing evidence-based nutritional practices, we empower listeners to take control of their health, fostering a community that prioritizes well-being and optimal hormonal balance. Our discourse not only seeks to enlighten but also to inspire actionable change, as we invite our audience to join the movement towards reclaiming metabolic health.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

1. The Moral Sedation: Why your breakfast was designed by John Harvey Kellogg as a "pure" sedative to suppress the human spirit, not to support your thyroid.
2. The Plumbing Model: How the 1948 "donation" from Procter & Gamble turned industrial machine lubricant into "heart-healthy" Crisco.
3. The Missing Data: The truth about Ancel Keys’ Seven Countries Study and why he "deleted" the healthy, high-fat data from France and Switzerland.
4. The Sydney Betrayal: Why clinical evidence proving industrial oils increased death risk by 17% was hidden in a basement for four decades.
5. The HHS Flip: Understanding the 2025–2030 guidelines and why the "experts" are finally catching up to the biology we’ve taught for years.

The ThriveHer Takeaway

"Biology doesn't care about a consensus—it cares about signals. You cannot build a healthy human on a foundation of refined sugar and industrial oils."

Resources & Links

Join the Micro-Habit Revolution: Get one clinical micro-habit and one reframe delivered daily via WhatsApp.

1. www.microhabits.thriveher.vip
2. thriveher.vip

Welcome to the ThriveHer podcast where we empower women to take control of their unique health conditions and wellness journey during perimenopause and beyond.

Our goal is to help you dream big and reach your fullest potential in every part of your life.

Each week the podcast dives into expert insights, natural solutions and inspiring stories to support you on your journey.

And now, here's your host, your no nonsense naturopath, Rochelle Wade.

Imagine a state of being where your energy isn't a currency that you're constantly running out of.

Imagine waking up and feeling a level of biological quiet.

No morning brain fog, no desperate reach for caffeine just to function.

Your hunger isn't a screaming emergency at 10am It's a calm signal.

Your moods are stable because your nervous system is actually insulated.

Your hormones, your estrogen and progesterone aren't missing in action.

They're being built day by day from the raw materials your body was designed to use.

This is metabolic freedom.

This is the destination.

This is the physiological state you were meant to be in.

But for 50 years you haven't been able to reach that destination.

Not because you aren't trying, but because you were handed a map that was never designed for you to get there.

You were handed the food pyramid.

Today we're going to look at why that map was a work of fiction.

We're going to perform an autopsy on all the stuff ups of the century.

We are tearing up the old map and you can finally find your way home.

We had a moral movement.

John Harvey Kellogg was a medical doctor, but his primary driver was a rigid Victorian moral code.

He believed that the human body was a vessel that needed to be calmed.

He believed that exciting foods, meat, spices and animal fats stimulated carnal fever and sinful human impulses.

Kellogg didn't design cornflakes to support your thyroid or stabilize your blood sugar.

He designed them to be bland, high fiber sedatives.

He believed that a grain heavy diet would suppress the human spirit and make people more compliant.

By the time the modern nutrition era began, this cultural bias was already the foundation.

We had effectively decided, based on a moral crusade, that grains were pure and animal products were aggressive.

We weren't looking for health, we were looking for a Way to stay calm and pure.

This was the first major error in the blueprint substituting morality for biology.

Physicians looked at an artery like a pipe in a house.

When they saw a clog, which we now know is a complex immunological response to chronic inflammation, they only understood the the mechanics of the pipe.

At the same time, the institutions we were taught to trust were undergoing a radical change in funding.

That changed virtually overnight when they received a $1.7 million donation from Procter and Gamble.

Procter and Gamble weren't a health care company.

They were the makers of Crisco.

Suddenly, industrial seed oils, literally a byproduct of the cotton industry that had been used as a machine lubricant, were rebranded as heart healthy alternatives to butter and lard.

The American Health association became a new a national powerhouse funded by an industry that needed to get machine grease onto your dinner plate.

This wasn't a scientific breakthrough, it was a marketing triumph.

This corporate engine needed a scientific shield.

And they found it in a physiologist named Ansel Keys.

Keys is the architect of the low fat error.

His seven country study is the reason your doctor still checks your total cholesterol as if it's the only metric that matters.

Caius claimed he found a perfect linear correlation.

As fat intake went up, heart disease went up.

But here is the stuff up that cost millions of lives.

Caius actually had data from 22 countries, but when you look at all 22, the line disappears completely.

There was no correlation.

Why did he exclude the others?

Because countries like France, Norway, Switzerland and West Germany didn't fit his story.

In France and Switzerland, they ate massive amounts of butter, cream and saturated fat, yet they had incredibly low rates of heart disease.

Caius didn't try to understand the French paradox.

He simply deleted the data so it wouldn't ruin his narrative.

He cherry picked the world to fit a theory that was already paid for.

Now if you'd like to know how deep the betrayal goes, you have to look at the Sydney Diet heart study right here in Australia.

They wanted to prove that replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils would save them.

The results were a clinical disaster.

The men in the Heart Healthy vegetable group were dying at a significantly higher rate than those eating animal fats.

What did the researchers do?

They suppressed the data.

They didn't published the mortality results.

For 40 years, that information sat in boxes in a basement.

When the raw data was finally reanalysed, the truth was undeniable.

Replacing saturated fats with these industrial oils actually increased the risk of death by 17%.

The experts had the evidence in the 70s.

They saw that their theory was killing people and they chose to leave the data in a basement to protect the policy.

That is not science, that is negligence.

This is where the naturopathic and independent nutrition communities finally prevail.

For decades, we have been shouting from the sidelines that biology doesn't care about control consensus, it cares about signals.

When you build your diet on a foundation of grains, you trigger a permanent state of hyperinsulinemia.

High grains equal high insulin.

Insulin is a fat storage key.

As long as your insulin is high, your body will biologically be incapable of burning fat for fuel.

But here's the clinical disaster.

Your hormones, your estrogen and progesterone and testosterone for men and women are all manufactured from cholesterol.

When we stripped cholesterol rich foods from the diet and replaced them with insulin spiking grains, we created what I call the ultimate bad equation.

High insulin plus zero raw materials equals a metabolic crash rash.

This is the cause of the epidemic we see in obesity and it is the cause of the dementia epidemic.

We now refer to Alzheimer's as type 3 diabetes because it is insulin resistance of the brain.

We starved our brains of the structural fats they needed and flooded them with glucose they couldn't handle.

We traded our cognitive health for cereal box narratives.

Look fast forward to today.

Now, this isn't a minor tweak.

It's a full scale reconstruction of dietary reality.

And they're finally taking real science seriously.

They're moving away from the grain heavy foundation and acknowledging that natural stable fats are not the villain now.

This is the vindication that the naturopathic community have been fighting for since the 70s.

The experts are finally catching up on the biology that we've been teaching in our clinics for decades.

You cannot build a healthy human on a foundation of refined sugar and industrial oils.

So what I want to do is return you to the physiological basics.

Now, number one, we need to anchor our diet in protein, and this helps stabilise the insulin signal.

We need stable fats to provide the raw materials for your hormones and your brain.

And we need strategic carbs used as a tool for activity rather than as a foundation for life.

Here's the key message I'd like you to take home.

Though you aren't the problem, the blueprint was and now the truth's out of the basement.

I give you permission to ignore the old food pyramid.

If you've spent years following the rules and you're still feeling flat, it's really time to stop fighting a system that wasn't designed for you.

It's time to reset for something that actually respects your physiology.

I would love to invite you to join the Microhabit Revolution.

This is where we move from theory into action.

With one clinical microhabit and one reframe delivered to you every single day via WhatsApp.

These are the steps you need to take back control.

It's very easy, not meant to cause you any stress.

You can find the link in our show notes or go straight to the group by visiting www.microhabits.thriveher.vip Coming up next week on Thrive Her Unfiltered we are making the final call.

January is ending and the the resolutions are hitting the wall.

We are going to talk about why your discipline isn't the problem, but your biological ceiling is.

We're going to talk about resource debt and why your body is currently vetoing your goals.

So I'd love to see you in episode 25, the Microhabit Revolution.

Final call.

Until next time, keep believing in yourself, keep striving for more and keep thriving, because your best life is just ahead.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of the thrivehert podcast.

We hope you found valuable insights and practical tips to help you on your path to achieving everything you want in life.

Remember, with the right support, you can achieve anything.

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Until next time, stay empowered, stay healthy and keep thriving.