Nutrition Diva
Nutrition advice has never been easier to find. Knowing which advice you can trust has never been harder. Every day brings another headline, social media trend, or viral nutrition claim telling you what to eat, what to avoid, or which supplement will change your life. Much of it sounds convincing. Much of it isn't supported by the evidence. Nutrition Diva helps you separate nutrition science from nutrition myths so you can make confident decisions about your health. Each week, Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN, translates evidence-based nutrition into plain English, breaking down the latest research and explaining what it really means for your everyday life. Instead of sensational headlines and fad diets, you'll get practical nutrition guidance you can understand—and use. Whether you're trying to build healthier eating habits, lose weight, improve metabolic health, support healthy aging, or reduce your risk of chronic disease, every episode helps you make smarter nutrition decisions with confidence. Topics include healthy eating, balanced diets, gut health, probiotics, supplements, vitamins, weight management, intermittent fasting, Mediterranean and high-protein diets, food labels, processed foods, cholesterol, inflammation, diabetes prevention, heart health, longevity, and the latest nutrition research. You'll also hear Monica break down popular wellness trends, explain emerging nutrition science, evaluate supplement claims, and separate food myths from nutrition facts so you can spend less time wondering who to believe and more time building healthy habits that last. Regular features include listener questions, myth busting, fact vs. fad, and expert interviews exploring the science behind the nutrition questions people ask most. If you're looking for nutrition science you can trust—and practical guidance that fits real life—subscribe to the Nutrition Diva. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
884. Your doctor can write you a prescription for a statin or a blood pressure medication. What if they could also prescribe fresh vegetables, and your health insurance paid for them?
That’s one of the central ideas behind the Food Is Medicine movement, and cardiologist Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian is one of its leading voices. In his new book, “Food Is Medicine: Healing Our Bodies, Nourishing Our Minds, and Transforming Our ...
883. You've probably been told to skip broccoli, garlic, spicy food, sushi, peanuts and even your morning coffee while breast-feeding. How much of that advice holds up?
Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN, sorts fact from folklore on what to eat and what to avoid while nursing. She covers the colic theory about cruciferous vegetables, the open question of whether eating peanuts during breast-feeding affects a baby's allergy risk, and the NIH E...
882. Someone in your office comes back from vacation with a box of soups and shakes and announces they're doing a five-day fast. Except they're eating.
Fasting-mimicking diets are unusual among viral wellness protocols in that there is a real body of peer-reviewed research behind them. There is also a company selling the five-day kits, founded by the researcher who developed the protocol and funding many of the trials. Both of those...
699.What's the latest guidance on how much protein we should eat, and what sources of protein are best, especially as we age? In response to a New York Times article released this week, we are bringing back this episode form 2023, with a fresh introduction from Monica.
New to Nutrition Diva? Check out our special Spotify playlist for a collection of the best episodes curated by our team and Monica herself!
Adaptogens, Botanicals, and Boosters: Which Products Actually Deliver? | Nutrition Diva LIVE in NYC!
Adaptogens, Botanicals, and Boosters: Which Products Actually Deliver? | Nutrition Diva LIVE in NYC!
In this special live episode, recorded at the Drinks with Benefits alcohol-free festival in New York City—brought to you in partnership with Liquid I.V.—host Monica Reinagel dives into the fascinating world of functional beverages to separate scientific fact from clever marketing.
Monica explains exactly what you s...
881. Bodybuilders have been taking creatine for decades, and its effects on strength and muscle mass are well established. Lately it's also being sold for brain health, better sleep, and menopause. The evidence on those newer claims is a lot thinner, but it isn't nothing.
Creatine is stored mostly in your muscles, where it powers short bursts of high-intensity effort. Your body makes some of it, and you get the rest from meat and fi...
880. CoQ10 shows up in cellular energy production, in antioxidant defense, and increasingly, in marketing aimed at anyone over fifty. It's sold for energy, for athletic performance, and especially to the millions of people taking a statin, since those medications really do lower CoQ10 levels in the blood.
So who genuinely benefits? In this episode, Monica sorts the credible case from the promotional one. She covers why your bod...
879. Are you eating too much protein, or not enough? The honest answer is that the question itself is flawed, because there's no single number that fits everyone.
In this episode, Monica breaks down why protein needs shift across a lifetime. The mTOR "growth switch" inside your cells runs hot during childhood, powering the tissue-building that young bodies require. In your 30s and 40s, dialing protein back may nudge cells toward rep...
878. A tick bite you may not even remember getting can leave you unable to eat a hamburger, a slice of pizza, or a bowl of ice cream. That's alpha-gal syndrome, and it's turning up far outside its original range.
Alpha-gal is a sugar molecule found in the cells of most mammals but not in humans. When a lone star tick injects it under the skin, the immune system can start treating it as a threat. After that, beef, pork, lamb, venison...
Eight glasses a day. An ounce per pound. A pinch of salt in your water. Everyone has a hydration rule, and most of them came from somewhere other than the research.
This live episode was recorded in front of an audience at the Friends of the National Arboretum in Washington, DC (@fonarboretum), with an outdoor yoga session led by Bikram Yoga Works (@bikramyogaworks). Thank you to both for making the night possible.
Moni...
877. L-theanine, an amino acid found in tea leaves, is having a moment with longevity enthusiasts and menopause influencers alike, promoted to calm anxiety, clear brain fog, improve sleep, and slow aging. But does the research hold up? In this episode, Monica breaks down what the studies on L-theanine actually show about attention, sleep quality, stress, and cellular aging, and why a cup of coffee or a short nap might do just as mu...
876. There's no vitamin F or G. After E, we jump straight to K, and that quirk is a hint that this nutrient is more complicated than it looks. Vitamin K isn't one thing. It's a whole family of compounds -- K1, K2, MK-4, MK-7 -- that come from different sources and do completely different jobs, from blood clotting to steering calcium into your bones instead of your artery walls.
In this episode, Monica untangles the confusing ter...
On a road trip, tackling a summer cleanup, or just catching up on podcasts? QDT has you covered with Summer Saturday encores from your favorite shows. See the full Summer Saturday lineup on Spotify and enjoy this episode, which first aired in November 2025.
838. Are manufacturers using a regulatory loophole to sneak untested chemicals into our food? In this episode, we break down what GRAS really means, why it exists, and how th...
874. If you're prone to kidney stones, you've probably been told to cut back on calcium. If you're worried about your bones, you've been told to get more. So which is it?
Turns out it's a false choice. The old advice to restrict dietary calcium doesn't lower your risk of calcium stones -- it can raise it, while leaving your bones more vulnerable to loss. In this episode, Monica breaks down why the calcium in your food behaves so dif...
On a road trip, tackling a summer cleanup, or just catching up on podcasts? QDT has you covered with Summer Saturday encores from your favorite shows. See the full Summer Saturday lineup on Spotify and enjoy this episode, which first aired in November 2024.
California recently enacted legislation to ban certain food dyes in public schools. What’s the scientific case to support this?
874. Some wellness articles promise that certain foods can flush plastics and forever chemicals out of your body. In this episode, Monica tracked down the actual studies behind those claims, looking at what the research on fiber, probiotics, and antioxidants really shows about clearing PFAS. She also unpacks why PFAS and microplastics keep getting lumped together even though they behave nothing alike, and covers the practical steps...
On a road trip, tackling a summer cleanup, or just catching up on podcasts? QDT has you covered with Summer Saturday encores from your favorite shows. See the full Summer Saturday lineup on Spotify and enjoy this episode, which first aired in August 2024.
Examining whether vitamins and nutrients can really be absorbed through the skin using products like patches and creams.
New to Nutrition Diva? Check out our special S...
873. Colonoscopy prep flushes everything out of your large intestine, including the trillions of bacteria that make up your gut microbiome. So once it's over, is that a chance to rebuild your intestinal flora better than before? A listener named Fred wondered the same thing, and when he asked his gastroenterologist, the idea got pooh-poohed.
In this episode, Monica digs into what colonoscopy prep actually does to your gut bact...
On a road trip, tackling a summer cleanup, or just catching up on podcasts? QDT has you covered with Summer Saturday encores from your favorite shows. See the full Summer Saturday lineup on Spotify and enjoy this episode, which first aired in September 2023.
Traveling doesn't mean your healthy eating habits have to take a vacation too. Nutrition Diva shares practical, no-hype strategies for finding good options in convenience st...
787. How do we balance the need to protect our skin from UV rays with our body’s need for vitamin D?
Mentioned in this episode:
DMinder (iOS/Android) - http://dminder.ontometrics.com/
Vitamin D and UV Tracker (Android) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.uv.vitamindtracker
SunDay Vitamin D and UV Tracker (iOS) - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sunday-vitamin-d-uv-tracker/id1133953409
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