26. Vanessa Rissetto: Seed Oils, Ultraprocessed Foods, Nutrition Myths, and More

In this episode, Sam sits down with Vanessa Rissetto, a registered dietitian, Scorpio, and founder of Culina Health. They talk about the brokenness of American healthcare and how Culina is creating an inclusive nutrition economy before deep diving on all the buzzy topics we can't seem to escape in 2025. What are ultraprocessed foods doing to our bodies? Are seed oils really that bad? Are GLP-1s like Ozempic safe for aesthetic weight loss purposes? Listen to this episode if you've ever asked yourself any of those questions, if you're struggling with food noise in the wellness space, or if you want to hear realness from someone who's highly trained and certified to advise you...instead of a healthtokker. Key moments: 00:00:35 Guest intro 00:03:17 The couple that changed Vanessa’s career 00:06:11 The trend of protein-heavy diets and omitting certain food groups 00:08:53 Why registered dietitians are not historically accessible (+ some shade lol) 00:13:10 Sam’s functional health and supplements journey 00:14:43 How Culina makes registered dietitians accessible by leveraging insurance 00:16:56 How the nutrition and dietitian industries are not inclusive 00:19:20 Vanessa’s input on buzzy/trendy health and nutrition topics 00:20:32 Ultraprocessed foods 00:22:05 What ultraprocessed foods do to our bodies 00:23:49 How to easily identify which foods are ultraprocessed 00:26:05 Some foods that you wouldn’t expect to be ultraprocessed…but are 00:28:20 Food dyes 00:29:45 Getting in the weeds on small health things and losing sight of the big picture 00:31:41 SEED OILS!!! In CAPS LOCK bc I know you wanna know lol 00:31:59 Do seed oils cause inflammation? 00:32:38 The serving size conversation that we ALL need to hear 00:37:26 What are the worst foods??? Sugary cereals, processed meats, etc. PLUS a grocery shopping life hack 00:41:10 What kinds of foods should we actively seek out and add to our diets? 00:43:36 Why does it feel like even the healthy foods are unhealthy these days? 00:44:44 What words do you look for on food packaging? 00:48:58 Vanessa’s breast cancer story 00:50:22 Everything is a carcinogen SOS 00:52:21 How Vanessa changed her habits after beating cancer 00:55:21 Biggest nutrition myths 00:58:20 GLP-1s: What they are and how they work 01:01:51 Short-term effects of GLP-1s 01:02:41 Long-term effects of GLP-1s 01:05:00 Everyone is body positive until it comes to themselves: transparency and responsibility 01:09:45 Health tests (GI MAP, DUTCH Test, etc.) are kinda BS 🤐 01:16:55 The future of nutrition trends and the global health conversation Visit ⁠⁠FunctionHealth.com/CAPSLOCK⁠⁠. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠Zocdoc.com/CAPSLOCK⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow along: Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠www.instagram.com/lifeincapslock⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠www.tiktok.com/@lifeincapslock⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠www.youtube.com/@lifeincapslock⁠⁠⁠ Threads: ⁠⁠⁠www.threads.net/@lifeincapslock⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices