 Next question is from B.J. Sayer. What actually constitutes processed foods? Is protein powder processed? How about protein bars or yogurt? Where do you draw the line? Okay, so great question. I actually got a huge debate once in my... All nuance. In my wellness studio. So back in the day, I had a wellness studio and there were other trainers in there and we had massage therapists, acupuncturists, and I had some nutrition people and physical therapists and essentially what the goal was, you come in here and you, you know, kind of one-stop-shop type of deal. But we had this wonderful environment because it was a small facility. I would be in there training a client and there might be four other trainers with clients. We're all doing our own thing, but we would have all these cross discussions across the gym and these wonderful debates and everybody was super open and it was really, really fun. And I would always rant and rave about avoiding processed foods, just like I do on the podcast, right? I would talk about how processed foods encourage overeating, how they tend to promote poor health and all that stuff. Anyway, one of my other trainers' clients worked in the food industry. He actually owned a plant that got prunes or got plums, dried them, turned them into prunes and then sold them and packaged them. And I remember I was talking about processed foods. I was telling my client, avoid heavily processed foods. They promote overeating. They do this and that. And then he pipes up and he goes, oh yeah, name one food that isn't processed. I'm like, what do you mean by that? And he goes, a steak is processed. They have to cut it out. They have to put it in the package. They have to make sure that it doesn't have, that there's certain cuts. This and that. He goes, I process food. He goes, I sell prunes, but the prunes have to go in the package. You have to process them. It has to go through the plant. And I said, okay, fair enough, fair enough. 99% of the food that you're going to eat unless you grow it yourself. Actually, in fact, even if you grow it, there's a, there's a, you have to process it somewhat, right? You got to pick it out of the ground, wash it, cut certain parts off. That's all considered processing. So let's get a little bit more specific. I've heard the same argument for GMO, but keep going. Yeah. So let's get a little bit more specific. Okay. When we talk about processed foods, what we're talking about are foods that typically have more than one or two or three ingredients. They come in a box. They come in a wrapper. It's not a steak. When you look at a steak, the ingredients are steak. When I look at a banana, the ingredients are banana. But if I look at banana-flavored candy or, you know, some, like a meat-flavored whatever or meat product like sausage, then you see all these different ingredients and this whole process that is designed to make the food as palatable as possible. Most of the money that goes into heavily processed foods, that's why I don't say processed anymore. I say heavily processed food, goes into dramatically increasing the palatability of the food. Now, why can that be a bad thing? It can be a bad thing because that makes us overeat. We now finally have studies to support this. On average, people eat 500 more calories a day for meeting heavily processed food. That's pounds of body fat a month on your body. That's not a little bit. 500 calories is not a small bump. And it's consistent across all the studies. They're double-blind. They're crossover studies. They're controlled. They're very, very good. I've experienced it with clients. So that's the thing. Now, protein powder is extremely processed. Okay? You're eating protein that came from what? I don't know, whey, plants. Now it tastes like chocolate cake. Of course, it's heavily processed. Now, here's a deal. Use it for what it's good for. I didn't get enough protein in my diet today. It's convenient. It doesn't come with fat and carbs. So I can hit my calories. Here I go. I'll take this protein shake. But if all you did was take protein shakes and make foods out of protein, like we talked about the peanut butter balls and protein bars, you probably would also be overeating. You probably would find yourself having a tendency to overeat, because those foods are also designed to be hyper-palatable. Now, I'm not going to put them in the same categories, like potato chips and that kind of stuff, because part of their goal is to be high protein and somewhat healthy, so they have some limitations. But yes, those are considered processed. Minimally processed foods, yogurt. You can get minimally processed yogurt, plain. It doesn't have a whole, you know, list of ingredients. Listen, listen, listen. I mean, we can start going down. Yeah, listen, Linda. Going down this rabbit hole, I got somebody who DM me after one of my, you know, question things that I do on my Instagram story and somebody asked about Magic Spoon and so Magic Spoon came up and they're like, you know, I thought you guys are anti-processed foods. And I'm like, what the fuck does that mean? Anti-processed foods. Like, there's not a day that goes by that I don't have something that is somewhat processed to your point. Everything is. But my goal always is to try and eat as much whole foods as I possibly can and minimize how much things I ingest that are processed. It's just that simple. It's not that complicated. It's not that complicated. And there's not a line. We're not drawing a line in the sand of these are all good foods or these are all bad foods. It's understanding that foods are engineered to make you want to eat tons of them. Listen, we're sponsored by lots of brands like protein powders and cereals that are processed foods. If you found yourself, if you called me up and you said, you're a client of mine and you said, Adam, I can't stop eating this Magic Spoon. I'm eating four boxes a day. Should I keep eating it? Because it's healthy and it's good for me. Just use the mind pump code. No. No, I would say no. Absolutely not. But if you're abusing it, just like you could abuse the protein powder, then we have an issue. And if I had the choice as your trainer if you said, hey, Adam, I'm thinking about sitting down and having six ounces of steak with some white rice and a cup of broccoli or I was thinking about pouring a bowl of Magic Spoon, what would you rather me do? What the fuck do you think I'm going to say? I'm going to tell the person I'd much rather than eat that meat. But at the same time, if they weren't going to get up and make themselves steak rice and broccoli and they were craving something sweet and they're watching TV and they were thinking about getting up and go eat in a box of cookies and instead they go grab a bowl of Magic Spoon, I would much rather see that. So it's really just the awareness of what you're doing and be aware that when the more process it is, the more palatable it's probably going to be and the more susceptible you're going to be to over-consuming. And it's your job to be disciplined enough to be aware of that and know when you're abusing it. And understand that a lot of people are not very aware. And so become aware of which ones are really processed, what is the difference between heavily processed foods and what is the difference between whole foods. Everybody's goal should be to get as much whole foods as possible. But I would be a total hypocrite if I drew a line in the sand and said these are bad foods and these are good foods and I only recommend whole foods because that's not how I live. Yeah, and you also have to understand that processed foods also have a lot of value. One thing that processed foods do very well is they have long shelf life. There is a lot of value in that, especially when you're transporting food long distances when people need to store food. If there's an emergency, it's extremely efficient. That's a great quality. Also, there's nothing wrong with enjoying hyper-palatable food. That's a part of life. Just don't do it the wrong way. I mean, there's a difference between mindlessly eating food and eating food in a mindful way. It's very different. One looks like binging. The other one looks like enjoying every bite, savoring it, and enjoying the company around you. Two very, very different things. Hyper-palatable, heavily processed foods. If you're aware of the potential effects on you and if you try to minimize how many of them you consume, you're doing a pretty damn good job. If you're not aware, like most people, and they make up a bulk of your nutrition, it's going to be very difficult to eat the right amount of food and calories and to hit the right macros, and even just eat in a healthy way. It's going to be very, very difficult because those foods, if you're not aware, will make you overeat in a big way.