Is Coke 0 Healthy? + Countering Overthinking
Happy Thursday, and welcome to the 23rd edition of the Thrive Protocol Letter.
Today at a glance:
Breaking down a useful way to think about “healthy food”
A perspective on countering overthinking
Artificial sweeteners. Aspartame. Coke 0.
This is such a triggering topic for people, and I don’t understand why.
Nothing gets people riled up like artificial sweeteners.
Given the title, you may be expecting a bunch of studies on the effects of aspartame and things of that nature.
I’ll have to disappoint you.
That’s not the approach I want to take here.
There’s a general problem with a lot of health & fitness content where people (like myself) who are not scientists and don’t really know how to read studies very well just find studies that support their point and throw them into their content while barely taking the time to fact check them.
(Yes, I occasionally do link studies when I think they’re clear and relevant.)
But spamming aspartame studies is not the route I want to take here.
From what I’ve seen, it does seem that small amounts of aspartame are probably benign and that you’d have to consume an absurd amount of it to be at serious risk for cancer, but that’s not what I want to talk about.
I want to dig into the nuance of the question, “Is it healthy?” and break down what that even means.
There is so much nutritional dogma, conflicting information, and sensationalist content that it’s important to go back to the basics of what makes food healthy.
I hate the term “healthy food.”
It’s too vague. To determine whether something is healthy requires a context of the human consuming it.
When talking about food outside of the context of who is eating it, we need to use better words than “healthy.”
Some good alternatives are:
Nutrient Dense
This is typically what we mean by healthy.
For example, we say that kale is a healthy food because it contains a ton of micronutrients in a very calorie-efficient package.
A donut has a lot of calories but very little nutritional value.
Protein percentage
Getting adequate protein is one of the healthiest things you can do. A food has a good protein percentage when it has a high amount of protein relative to its calories, like egg whites, chicken breast, or white fish.
High in Fiber
Fiber is good for our gut health and digestive health, and most people struggle to consume enough fiber.
These are a few terms that are better than “healthy” to describe food outside of context.
But the true nature of whether something is healthy needs a context to be real.
This is best demonstrated through an example.
Let’s come up with an example that, unfortunately, doesn’t require too much imagination.
A person who is 300 lbs, 35% body fat, and who drinks 12+ cans of soda on a weekly basis.
This person is headed for type 2 diabetes; their health markers are terrible, and they’re increasing their risk for heart disease, cancer, and stroke.
Their #1 priority is to lose body fat and improve their metabolic health.
Going from 12 cans of soda per week to just water is a bit of a jump.
So, to soften the blow, we get them to start by choosing diet soda over full-sugar soda.
Depending on the soda, we’ve saved them anywhere from 1500 to 2500 calories by making that switch.
That might be a half pound per week.
They will start to lose fat just by making that switch alone.
So is Coke 0 healthy?
In this context, yes, it is.
It has helped someone make a healthier decision that will result in a healthier version of themselves.
In the same way, if you take someone who has a sweet tooth and struggles with binging, and a Coke 0 alleviates some of their cravings, it’s also a healthy choice.
It’s much healthier to have a Coke 0 than to eat an entire bag of Lays Chips.
The simple (contextual) definition of healthy food here is any food that helps someone become healthier.
“Healthy” is a concept better perceived at the level of lifestyle, not at the level of individual foods.
Any food that can help someone reduce binging or alleviate cravings can be considered a healthy food.
With this same definition, some “healthy” foods can be considered unhealthy.
Take the following snack I’ve seen suggested by holistic health accounts:
Medjool dates stuffed with grass-fed butter and drizzled with honey
Dates are calorically dense enough on their own — these are absolute energy bombs when you add butter and honey to them.
Are these “healthy?”
They’re nutrient-dense. But if someone is already at their calorie allotment for the day, would eating 500 calories worth of these dates be healthy?
Or having multiple scoops of organic, natural almond butter?
If these sources of whole foods put you in a calorie surplus and you start to gain fat, they are not healthy.
So context can make a Coke 0 a healthy choice and can make dates an unhealthy choice.
When simply talking about a food, it’s better to use more descriptive terms than saying “healthy” — terms like nutrient-dense, high-protein, and high in fiber.
Considering something “healthy” or “unhealthy” requires the context of the person consuming it:
What’s their metabolic health like?
What are their goals?
Does this food help them live a healthier lifestyle?
And finally, if this feels confusing, here’s a really simple way to think about it.
While arguing about whether something is “healthy” or not can be ambiguous, contextual, and result in lots of internet anger, declaring whether something is healthiER almost never does.
Coke 0 is healthier than full sugar coke.
The protein donuts (that I eat too many of) are healthier than Dunkin Donuts.
Quest Chocolate peanut butter cups have 11 grams of protein — they’re healthier than Reeses.
For all intents and purposes, if you’ve made a healthier choice,
You’ve made a healthy choice.
A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts.
So, he loses touch with reality, and lives in a world of illusions. By thoughts, I mean specifically, chatter in the skull.
Perpetual and compulsive repetition of words, of reckoning and calculating. I’m not saying that thinking is bad.
Like everything else, it’s useful in moderation. A good servant but a bad master. And all so-called civilized peoples have increasingly become crazy and self-destructive because, through excessive thinking, they have lost touch with reality. That’s to say, we confuse signs, words, numbers, symbols, and ideas with the real world. - Alan Watts
Most humans with a brain are no stranger to overthinking.
It’s a brutal tendency that leads to procrastination, shiny object syndrome, and paralysis by analysis.
I got a potent reminder this week of one of my main strategies for dealing with overthinking, and I wanted to share it here.
If you look into how many thoughts a person has in a day, you’ll find numbers ranging from 6000 to 70000.
I’m not a thought scientist, and I don’t know which is more accurate. And I don’t have to.
Whether it’s 6000 or 60000 — the point is that’s a shitload of thoughts.
Far too many thoughts to take seriously.
If you give credibility to every thought that enters your mind as something that deserves attention, you create the potential to drive yourself insane with overthinking.
Humans have known for centuries that forces outside of our best interests manifest in our minds.
There are many names for this — author Steven Pressfield calls it “Resistance.”
Many cultures refer to them as “demons.”
It doesn’t matter what you call it; what’s important is the irrefutable fact that we experience temporary thoughts and states of mind that do not represent our true interests and values.
I had a moment this week where I was feeling exhausted.
My cortisol is raised from weeks in a calorie deficit, and I’m racking up consecutive nights of poor sleep.
I brought something up to my wife that led to an argument.
The next day, after some caffeine, a morning walk, and a (slightly) better night of sleep, it became clear to me that I didn’t really mean what I’d brought up the day before.
The thought was not genuine; it didn’t reflect my values. But in a moment of weakness, I acted on it and brought it into the world.
My rule for dealing with overthinking (which I had forgotten) is to not give some thoughts about the time of day.
They don’t need to be “dealt with.”
They don’t need to be worked through.
They need to be dismissed.
Life can be an emotional roller coaster.
Searching for a new job, starting a business, being on the dating market — there are tons of life events that are series of ups and downs and everything in between.
During these phases, you may have thoughts (fueled by stressful days or poor sleep) that do not represent your true values and beliefs.
You’ll doubt yourself and your abilities.
You’ll question the path.
Instead of trying to deal with these thoughts and work them out, handle them by saying:
“This too shall pass.”
Recognize that this state of mind isn’t truly you and that anything you think right now doesn’t honestly reflect your values and beliefs.
Put any negative thoughts that come to you during these states out of your mind.
You don’t have to believe them.
You certainly shouldn’t act on them.
Trust that you’ll be back to yourself and your true values soon.
Relax and say: “This too shall pass.”
Counter overthinking by sticking true to your beliefs and understanding that many of the 6-60,000 (or whatever it is) thoughts you have during the day are pure BS.
Don’t believe everything that goes on in your brain.
Content I’m Enjoying
https://peterattiamd.com/lucvanloon/
This is a long but incredibly fascinating podcast on muscle, training, and protein consumption. Well worth the watch/listen!
Thanks for reading!
-Colin