four words to hate

Came across a really great article that I totally agree with.  In the May Women’s Health magazine, there was a little 1/2 pager on the 4 words nutritionists hate.  And they included one of my very own favorite words to hate!

Moderation (my favorite word/concept to hate)

So their reasoning for it is the it is “too abstract” or vague.  Which I agree with completely.

But, being an addict and coming from the perspective of someone who was morbidly obese due to a food addiction, the idea of moderation doesn’t mean much.  I could TRY for moderation, but never succeed.  This is why I fall in line with the faction of bariatric surgery groups/surgeons/people who don’t believe you can eat “everything in moderation” after the surgery.  I hate when people say you can eat “everything in moderation”.  Well – what the hell is moderation?!? Is it once a month, once a week, once a day, once a meal?  You can justify anything under the guise of “moderation”. If we could eat in moderation, then we would have been successful at dieting, but we weren’t, because 8/10 of us are food addicts.  And addicts can’t control themselves.  Addicts don’t do moderation. 

Reduced

They talk about how “reduced” only means a 25% reduction in calories, but it can still be high in fats/sugars/calories.  Just because it says “reduced” doesn’t mean it’s reduced to a level that would fit with your goals or make it something “healthy”.  Some things that are “reduced fat” will then have higher sugar/calories, or “reduced sugar” has more fat, etc.  It’s all a game of changing the nutrition facts just a little to trick us! And I swear half of it is just marketing.

My issue with “reduced” is that is means MORE PROCESSED.  I come from the background of doing paleo diets and clean eating, so this is still somewhat ingrained in me that “reduced” items = processed and processed = bad.  I do still eat some “reduced” items, but I carefully compare labels to see if it’s really worth it and to figure out what additional ingredients are added to “reduced” items.  But mainly, I just stay away from heavily processed food anyways and look for things that have fewer ingredients, ingredients I can read, and things without added sugars.

Detox

This one is frustrating to me.  I don’t understand how people think detoxing is healthy – what are detoxing from?  If you are eating healthy already, then you aren’t putting bad things in your body to detox from.  If anything, it’s just a fancy word for a fast.  Plus, I’m pretty sure our bodies know how to process the food (whether it’s real food or fake food) and knows how to get it through our digestion.

This kinda falls in line with the pouch resets I see.  I have mixed feelings about them.  I don’t think they are going to magically fix your issues with your pouch.  But I can see how they would help you feel restriction again if you have gone blind to it.  The structure of the shakes for 2 days and eating a small plain meal of solid dense protein to reteach you how to feel your restriction and feel what “full” feels like again – I get that.  But going back through the “phases” from right after surgery just seems like a waste.  You’re on mushy/puree foods to allow your pouch to heal from the swelling of surgery and for your internal stitches/staples to heal so you don’t tear anything.  Doing that again is just torturing yourself with an overly restrictive “diet”.

I also associate “detox” with cleanses.  Think of them as the same thing.

Guilt-Free

They use this term to say you shouldn’t define what is “good” vs. “bad” foods and how that’s not emotionally healthy for you.  Which I agree with to a point.

I do think having foods that you can’t eat is helpful – from the perspective of being an addict.  I know what foods are triggering for me and therefore what I can’t eat.  But if I slipped up and ate it, would I die?  No.  And as much as I’d like to say I’d pick myself back up and get back on the program and not make myself feel guilty, I would probably make myself feel guilty for it.  Something to work on.

 

Some additions I would have liked to see:

Diet

Diets emote “short-term”.  If you want to be healthier, you need to change your way of eating forever.  “Diet” also has a really bad connotation.  People view diets as bad things, as punishments, as torturous horrible things that equal boring food and you’ll always be hungry.  “Diets” are not forever, but healthy needs to be forever.  “Diets” don’t work.

One Size Fits All

This is more of a concept then a word, but I feel like it fits.  One way of eating isn’t going to work for every person.  Some people’s bodies need more carbs than others to function, some can’t handle higher fat diets while other flourish on them, some people are vegans and won’t eat meat or whey protein.

There is no 1 single best diet/way of eating that will work for everyone.  You have to play with the macros (protein/carbs/fats = calories) to find the best balance for you and what will make it so you can function properly, feel good, and reach whatever your goals are (lose weight/fat, gain muscle, maintain, etc.).  It’s all a balancing act and each person has a different balance.

Granted, those of us that had bariatric surgery signed up for a certain way of eating and you can only really add some modifications to it but not a ton to make it work right long term, but for those that didn’t, there really isn’t one “best” way to do it.

 

I don’t know… just gave me food for thought.  If you want to read the article, you can go here: http://www.womens-health.com.my/weight-loss/four-words-nutritionists-hate