Source: ATHLEAN-X™
ATHLEAN-X 7 foods: What You Need to Know
THE TL;DW
- Trainer behind ATHLEAN-X runs through the ATHLEAN-X 7 foods he’s rethinking, arguing “healthy” doesn’t always mean what packaging implies.
- He cites a real study showing blending bananas into smoothies can slash flavanol absorption from berries and other antioxidant-rich ingredients.
- Other targets include whole grain bread, canned soup, artificial food dyes, farm-raised salmon, and yogurt — flagged for processing or ingredient concerns rather than outright “bad food” labels.
The Jupiter Take
This isn’t a ban-everything video — it’s a fitness creator walking through personal reconsiderations on common “health foods,” some backed by research and some just preference. Worth a watch if you’re rethinking your 2026 diet before overhauling it entirely.
Context
The banana-smoothie claim traces back to a 2023 peer-reviewed study from UC Davis and the University of Reading, which found that blending a banana into a berry smoothie dramatically reduced flavanol bioavailability due to the enzyme polyphenol oxidase. Researchers in that study found that participants who drank the banana smoothie had notably lower flavanol levels than the control group, though they stressed bananas eaten on their own remain a perfectly healthy fruit — the issue is specifically about combining them with flavanol-rich ingredients like berries or cocoa in a blender.
The rest of the video leans more on the host’s own reasoning about processing, additives, and ingredient sourcing rather than hard science, covering items like canned soup, artificial dyes, and farm-raised salmon — topics that regularly stir debate in nutrition circles but don’t have the same level of consensus research behind them. This video fits the same mold as ATHLEAN-X’s broader catalog of myth-busting fitness content, including its recent breakdown of common pullup mistakes that undercut people’s training results.