Diet Cults Review – You are not what you eat

BAM talk about an in your face title! Doesn’t it immediately make you want to jusify why your way of eating is actually really amazing?! The best way…possibly THE way.

Good.

That’s exactly the premise of Matt Fitzgerald’s newest book –“…people want to believe that a certain way of eating is the best way because it gives them a sense of identity and a feeling of belonging.”

Why do you think Paleo is bigger in the CrossFit community or Veganism is bigger in yoga? Really they could swap places and be just the same…getting back to our roots, eating naturally, feeling better. Isn’t that the main goal of both diets?

While I haven’t ever found myself leading the charge on any particular band wagon, I’ve certainly fallen under the spell of marketing geniuses behind “superfoods” and other “good for you” trends.

Diet Cults Review

I LOVE this book. So we’ll just get that out of the way right up front.

The surprising fallacy at the core of nutrition fads and a guide to healthy eating for the rest of us

I’m a Matt Fitzgerald fan. Anyone who has been reading here long knows that from my talk of Run Faster {Be Your Own Coach} to his thoughts on the mind-body connection. I was intrigued and a little concerned to get a book from him about well…diets. He’s the running guy, right?
But I love DATA and information to help dispel so many of the myths that are tripping people up on the journey to eating well. It’s a heavily research and history based book, so if that’s not your thing here are the Cliff Notes:

Driven by the $$

“A competitive marketplace of healthy diets emerged in the nineteenth century and has been growing ever since. The recruiting programs of the healthy diet cults consist almost entirely of efforts to convince prospective followers that their diet is the One True Way to eat for maximum health.”

Matt details the lack of evidence both scientific and historical to support many popular programs claims. Yet he is also not saying that any of them are inherently wrong, just to be aware of what you are buying in to with your dollars and energy.

I wish we’d study this in history class

“Science has established quite definitively that humans are able to thrive equally well on a variety of diets.” Fascinating exploration of the different dietary habits throughout the world…and how quickly people have adapted to new foods.

No scientific evidence exists that our ancestors ate a 50% meat diet, that was a purely made up number by the originator of the Paleo diet. He found a number that worked for his body and it became doctrine.

Why are there testimonials for every diet??

“…a person who is sufficiently motivated to lose weight is bound to succeed regardless of which diet she chooses to follow.”

Members of the National Weight Control Registry are proof that a million different ways of eating work for weight loss. Instead 3 behaviors emerged as keys: self-weighing, monotonous eating and exercise.

Is my body really that dirty?

The maker ting hype is that juicing clears the body of accumulated toxins. Or that fasting allows the body to fully eliminate toxins and waster.

No scientific study supports this result. Maybe the reason they maintains popularity is that people feel great doing it because it gives them a sense of self-control, the same joy experienced by those who fast for a variety of reasons. We like to know that we can achieve goals and yes once again belong to a community.

Why do good for me foods change?

Ever wonder why this week it’s chocolate, next week it’s beer and the week after it’s wine that are good for you? Oh and then two days later, they aren’t good at all…

“What’s interesting about coffee, chocolate, and wine is that the pleasure they give us is directly connected to some of their beneficial health effects.”  << ah ha, so enjoying my food can actually make it better for me…now there’s an idea I can stand behind.

AGNOSTIC HEALTHY EATERS

The lump sum of everything he shares is a new way of eating that is not steeped in restrictions or good food/bad food, but choice.

It’s certainly not as easy to explain {see I am not Vegan, I just eat that way} – but this is definitely how I have been eating for years now and yes easily maintaining my weight loss.

In Running for Weight Loss, I talk a lot about finding the diet {lifestyle of eating} that truly works for YOUR body because we are all different, with different genetics, different histories, different goals.

Mama was right you are a special little snowflake and your body handles food differently than mine or his or your husbands or your training partner. You’ll have to invest a little time to figure out your perfect balance.

In a very small nut shell we both agree on the following:
– Eat plants — lots of them
– Eat high quality meats and fish
– Eat high quality dairy {if no issues}
– Eat grains, nuts, oils and legumes
– Enjoy your chocolate {in moderation}

In other words, eat mostly whole foods. Enjoy your food. Be smart, not rigid.

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