Vance Crowe Podcast 008: Connie Diekman Nutrition expert talks keto, alcohol & why diets don't work

About this episode

Connie Diekman, registered dietitian and former president of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, joins Vance for a wide-ranging nutrition-science interview. They start with what actually distinguishes a credentialed RD from a self-styled "nutrition expert," then move through the history of dietetics (born out of WWI soldier-feeding efforts in 1917), the five-year dietary-guidelines review cycle, and why "calories in, calories out" is real but individually variable because everyone's metabolism differs. A long middle section covers fad diets and why they fail (they demand giving up foods people love rather than building sustainable habits), the "anti-diet" and intuitive-eating movements, and the ketogenic diet in technical detail — how ketosis works, why it burns muscle before fat, why it dehydrates the body, and why weight lost on keto tends to return once carbs resume. They also cover the "health at every size" debate within the field, the professional risk of dietitians who are themselves overweight or have histories of eating disorders, and Connie's take on industry partnerships (using the Academy's Coca-Cola-funded sugar study, which produced an answer Coke didn't want, as her integrity example). The conversation closes with practical guidance on alcohol's caloric/metabolic effects, a clear walkthrough of type 1 vs. type 2 diabetes and insulin, and advice on when and how to find a dietitian. Connie ends by mentioning her paid role in Bayer's "LEAD Network," which Vance flags for the audience given his own past Monsanto/Bayer employment.

“Industry partnerships are to everybody's advantage as long as integrity rules it... There's no question. A lot of people have challenged... when we were the American Dietetic Association... we had partnerships with Coca-Cola and Pepsi... The Coca-Cola company gave a good donation to the academy's evidence analysis library to assess a question on sugar. And the answer didn't come out quite like they wanted, but the answer came out the way the science said it.”

“Well, there's a lot of cases being made... whether it is because of the healthcare professional connection too, or whether it is... that sugar is killing all of us... Added sugars... should never be more than 10% of your calories.”

Key moments

• Cold open — "alcohol is metabolized just like fat, so... the more alcohol, the more you store."
• The RD credential test — four-year degree, supervised internship, ongoing continuing education — as the line between a real dietitian and "the woman with a really great blog."
• Dietetics' origin in 1917, feeding WWI soldiers, and the founding of what became the American Dietetic Association.
• Why "calories in, calories out" is real but contested — "do you burn the same kind of calories as I do?" — individual metabolic variability, not the equation itself, is the real fight.
• Fad diets fail because they take away foods people love, not because dieters lack discipline — "you can't live without the things you love."
• Ketogenic diet deep-dive — ketosis forces the body to burn muscle before fat, high protein is a diuretic, and reintroducing carbs causes rapid water-weight rebound.
• The "health at every size" debate inside the Academy — acknowledging body-fat health risk without stigmatizing size.
• Connie's own industry-partnership defense — the Coca-Cola-funded evidence review on sugar "didn't come out quite like they wanted, but the answer came out the way the science said it."
• Alcohol's metabolic effects — processed like fat, drops blood sugar, and disguises intoxication risk on an empty stomach.

Notable quotes

“What's happening though is you're burning muscle because you will take anything that's in that muscle for fuel before you go to ketones.”

“The Coca-Cola company gave a good donation to the academy's evidence analysis library to assess a question on sugar. And the answer didn't come out quite like they wanted, but the answer came out the way the science said it.”

“You can't live without the things you love. And most fad diets cause you to do that.”

“People have been stopped when they, you know, aren't really alcohol intoxicated. So in other words, not above the 0.08, but it's because they didn't eat.”