Category Archives: Diet And Food

Whats the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise youll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopScis hit podcast. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week hits Apple, Anchor, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every-other Wednesday morning. Its your new favorite source for the strangest science-adjacent facts, figures, and Wikipedia spirals the editors of Popular Science can muster. If you like the stories in this post, we guarantee youll love the show.

Fact: Horace Fletcher became a millionaire lifestyle influencer by telling people to chew as much as possible

In some ways, Horace Fletchers revolutionary diet plan from the turn of the 20th century sounds shockingly modern (and a right bit more sensible than plenty of actually modern fad diets). At its core, his philosophy sounded a lot like what we now call intuitive eating: Only eat when youre hungry, and eat what youre craving when you crave it, but eat those things in moderation, and stop as soon as youre satisfied. Research suggests that following such guidelines is way more effective than, say, cutting out an entire macronutrient, or trying to live on a single food group.

But this self-taught nutritionist, who developed his method and published a hilariously named (and wildly popular) book on the subject after suffering from health problems in his middle age, promoted a decidedly unreasonable lifehack to make the whole mindful eating thing more palatable for the masses. They should eat anything they wanted whenever they wanted it, yes, but by eating," Fletcher really meant chewing.

Fletcherism, also referred to as the chew chew cult, told followers to masticate each bite of food for as long as it took to turn the morsels to liquid. Anything that couldnt slip gently down the throat was unnecessary; truly devoted practitioners would just spit those mouthfuls out.

A researcher who aimed to test the method not long after Fletchers death claimed, unsurprisingly, that this ritual did indeed lead him to lose weight (and, in his experience, get better at chess, but frankly this is why you need more than one subject when you try to study literally anything). However, he also described a loss of muscle mass and what sounds like sluggishness and brain fog, which makes sense given that all Fletcherism does is minimize the amount of food you actually consume. Its sort of like if you did a juice cleanse sans juicer. Who needs fiber when you can have low-calorie sugar water, and who needs a juicer when youve got a mouth full of teeth and a spittoon? Inspiring stuff. I hope this doesnt need to be said, but Fletcherism is not a safe or healthy way to lose weight. If weight loss is a health or fitness goal of yours, research suggests that eating a well-balanced diet in moderation and getting lots of exercise is the best plan.

Fact: A shocking number of at-home genetic tests return results that are... well, shocking.

The ease with which consumers can now get their genes sequenced has had a few tricky consequences. Regulators have grappled with the fact that people may receive information from an online test that leads them to make drastic medical decisions. Law-enforcement agencies have used the databases to track down alleged criminals who never even swabbed their own cheeks, making consumers question how much privacy theyre sacrificing in exchange for knowledge about ancestry and genetic quirks. And as numerous journalists have reported on in recent years, many, many customers have found out that, biologically speaking, theyre not who they thought they were.

In this weeks episode of Weirdest Thing, I dive into just how common these surprising (and often quite upsetting) non-paternity events really are.

On a lighter note, we also debate just what constitutes a zaddy.

Fact: Americas favorite convenience chain has the cheesiest origin story

Most people know the Mid-Atlantic for its highways, and for good reason. But nothing helps erase that Mad Max road rage like pulling of the highway and hitting a Wawa. With more than 800 stores between New Jersey and South Florida, the franchise is the East Coast go-to for hot stuffed pretzels, custom-built hoagies (or heroes), Voodoo chips, and data breaches.

More than a century ago, however, Wawa was nothing more than a modest dairy farm in, you guessed it, Wawa, Pennsylvania. The name itself has a beautiful backstory: It comes from the local Algonquian word for Canada goose. That explains why the company's logo has a honking big bird splashed across it.

Well, the owner of this Wawa dairy farm just couldnt stop making money, and pretty soon his doctor-certified golden Guernsey milk was hitting doorsteps across multiple counties. But with the advent of supermarkets in the 1960s, lukewarm lactose fell back in demand. The Wawa family decided to switch course, and soon, a chain of tiny food marts was born. Today, the original farm has been preserved under a local nature trust, where folks can hike, bird, and yes, even see a Canada goose (or six).

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The 'chew chew cult' is a Victorian diet fad that should really, really never come back - Popular Science

While Diulus personally benefits from a vegan keto diet, as do some of her patients, she stresses that there's a spectrum when it comes to diets, and it may not be for you. "Some people do amazingly well on a low-fat, plant-based diet, and some people do great on a carnivore diet. It's about figuring out what works best with your body and how you feel the best," she says.

Registered dietitian Abby Cannon, R.D., also cautions people not to jump on the vegan keto train without thinking long and hard about why they want to do it and weighing the potential risksbecause there are a few significant concerns.

"It's very difficult to adhere to while also ensuring that you're getting enough nutrients and not developing disordered eating habits," says Cannon. "If you don't consume soy products, it's hard to ensure that you receive enough protein, given that you have to cut out whole grains and beansstaple protein sources in a vegan diet!" Like all vegan diets, vegan keto will also be deficient in vitamin B12 and potentially low in iron and other nutrients, so Cannon recommends a comprehensive multivitamin if you do try it.

Vegan keto may also be pretty hard to sustain unless you're particularly motivated. "It's unlikely that anyone can stick to it long term, and any rapid weight loss experienced is likely to come right back on once you return to your normal eating habits," says Cannon, noting that many of the healthiest, longest-living people in the world eat legumes, whole grains, fruits, and starchy vegetablesall of which are a no-go on a vegan keto diet.

If there's a medical reason for needing a ketogenic diet, the vegan keto diet might be an option, says Cannon, but it's extremely important that when trying any restrictive diet that you do so with the support of professionals to ensure that you're meeting your nutritional needs and doing it for the right reasons. That said, if you're pregnant, breastfeeding, or have a history of disordered eating, you should definitely pass on this diet, she says.

Additionally, your vegan keto diet may also result in side effects that are somewhat typical of all keto diets, especially ones that aren't balanced, including a temporary but drastic upswing in cravings, moodiness, and fatigue (often called "keto flu"); too much weight loss; hair loss (especially if you're not getting enough protein); and imbalances in electrolytes, which get flushed out when you lose water weight. To offset electrolyte imbalances, Diulus recommends increasing your sodium intake a bit and supplementing with magnesium.

And, if you're doing everything "right" and still don't feel good, vegan keto may just not be for youand that's OK. In fact, Belardo switched back to her higher-carb vegan diet after her two-week vegan keto experiment because she was losing too much weight and missed some of her favorite foods, including fruits. (Here are some signs a keto diet just isn't working for you.)

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Why MDs Are Fans Of This Modified Keto Diet + A 5-Day Meal Plan To Get Started - mindbodygreen.com

DEAR ABBY: I have multiple chronic health conditions. Because my symptoms are worsened by a lot of foods, Im on a highly restricted diet. If I stay on it, I feel as well as possible. (I never feel entirely well.)

When I go to friends homes for dinner or parties, would it be rude for me to bring along something for myself that I can eat that wont make me sick? I can have no grains, no dairy, no eggs, no sugar, the list goes on and on, but I could always bring extra food to share if you think that would be appropriate.

I have been eating before I go and then claiming not to be hungry, but I feel it would be rude to do this at dinner parties. What do you suggest I do? I prefer that my health not be a topic of conversation. CANT EAT JACK

DEAR CANT: Your health wont be a topic of conversation at these gatherings if you discuss this with your host(s) at the time you are invited to the party. Explain that you are on a severely restricted diet, picking at their food might be interpreted as rude and you dont wish to come across that way. Ask if you can bring your own food with you. Im sure your hosts will understand and tell you to enjoy their hospitality (if not their food) because they welcome your company.

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I received a worrisome email from our 20-something-year-old son, a graduate student some distance away. He wrote that he is recovering from wounds of his childhood. (We thought we were loving, supportive parents.) He indicated he will come home for visits only if we comply with his demands about 10 were listed and accused us of some things we never did.

On the advice of my counselor I have a history of depression, which is in remission I wrote agreeing to his demands in order to keep the lines of communication open. My husband refuses to do this. He is overwhelmingly hurt, angry and frustrated. He says he will not walk on eggshells in his own home. Our son is our only child. What can or should we do? HEARTBROKEN IN OHIO

DEAR HEARTBROKEN: Nobody should have to walk on eggshells. If ever I heard of a family that could benefit from family counseling, you three are it. Your doctor or insurance company can refer you to someone who is licensed and competent. Please dont wait.

DEAR ABBY: My biological mother gave me up at birth. Her reason for doing it changes every time I ask. I joined the Navy right out of high school and left the service at 25. Less than a month later, she contacted me. It turns out that I have three half-siblings, but I have no desire to connect with them.

She waited 25 years to contact me, and I was the only one of my siblings she gave up. Does it make me a bad person that I have no emotional connection to my biological family? NO FEELINGS IN THE EAST

DEAR NO FEELINGS: No, it does not. Whatever her reason for surrendering you, you have built a good life. Please stop feeling guilty for moving forward and living it. Doing so does not make you a bad person, only a healthy one.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at http://www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

What teens need to know about sex, drugs, AIDS and getting along with peers and parents is in What Every Teen Should Know. Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds), to: Dear Abby, Teen Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

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Dear Abby: Person on restricted diet considers bringing food to dinner parties - Chicago Sun-Times

Houston, TX, Jan. 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Many people who struggle with weight loss believe that the solution can be found by simply changing what they eat. Fad diets are constantly changing or repackaging certain strategies that dont often tackle the common underlying issue, emotional eating. In our daily lives, there are a number of overt and hidden stressors bombarding us; whether they be job related, financial, health related, relationship-based or otherwise. Even when one doesnt feel emotionally stressed out, symptoms of stress can be sneaky, as managing and coping with ongoing stress can feel commonplace. A major symptom of stress emotional eating/food addiction, and this is what derails many dieters without them even realizing it.

The simple truth is, you may eating emotionally and not even know it. Many symptoms of emotional eating can seem quite benign, while others are more harmful. Some of the most common symptoms are:

Not only can emotional eating be a sign of larger issues, it is also very unhealthy, leading most commonly to:

Fortunately, Diet Demand has created a collection of great medical weight loss programs focused on helping individuals overcome the real problem, stress-based emotional eating. By tackling the true underlying cause, Diet Demand is helping lose weight faster and move towards long-term habit changing activities. Our doctor created and supervised medical weight loss plans combat emotional eating in many different ways, ranging from simple doctor supervision and evaluation to powerful prescription weight loss aids specifically designed to address the causes of emotional eating.

These medications can range from our Low Dose Naltrexone, which helps reduce appetite between meals and reduce stress levels in the body, our prescription Appetite Zap, a simple appetite suppressant designed to safely and effectively curb hunger.

Get your FREE Diet Demand consultation to assess your need for safe and quick diet results by visiting https: http://www.dietdemand.com/ to complete an initial comprehensive, yet simple, health questionnaire and schedule an immediate personal, no-cost consultation. DietDemands physicians all received specialized training in nutritional science and fast weight loss. DietDemand reviews each patients health history to create a personalized diet plan geared for fast weight loss, or that addresses life-long issues causing weight loss to slow down or stop. Nutritionists work personally with each patient and use their own algorithm to craft meal and snack plans that are compatible with each patients age, gender, activity level, food preferences, nutritional needs and medical conditions. They combine these state of the art diet plans with pure, prescription diet products that enable their patients to resist the temptation to reach for sugary snacks, eliminate fatigue and curb the appetite. Over 97% of DietDemand patients report incredible weight loss results with the majority losing 20 or more pounds per month.

At DietDemand, all patients gain unlimited access to the best minds in the business. Their staff of doctors, nurses, nutritionists and coaches are available six days per week to answer questions, offer suggestions, address concerns and lend their professional guidance and support. Because of this, more and more people are turning to DietDemand for their weight management needs. Diet plans are tailored to be specific to the needs of those of any age, gender, shape or size and for those who are struggling to lose that final 10-20 pounds to those who must lose 100 pounds or more. Call today to request a private, confidential, no-cost online consultation.

About the Company:

DietDemand is the nation's leader in medical, weight loss offering a full line of prescription medication, doctor, nurse and nutritional coaching support. For over a decade, DietDemand has produced a sophisticated, doctor designed weight loss program that addresses each individual specific health need to promote fast, safe and long-term weight loss.

DietDemand Contact Information:

Providing care across the USA

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Diet Demand Addresses Emotional Eating as Underlying Cause of Weight Gain - GlobeNewswire

A dementia care home has been criticised for not having enough members of staff to look after people living there.

Qu'Appelle Care Home, in Harrington Street, Bourne, was inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in November and its report has now been published.

It says the home, which had 25 people living in it at the time of the inspection, was not providing consistently safe, effective and well-led care.

The care home, which had been placed in Special Measures after a previous inspection, was rated as Inadequate after it was found people's right to privacy was not respected.

"Staff continued to use undignified, impersonal language to refer to people living in the home and did not support people in a consistently compassionate and person-centred way," the report states.

Inspectors were unhappy with staff using the term 'feeds' to describe people who needed staff support to eat and that the treatment room where patient records were kept was left unlocked and unattended, meaning anyone could walk in and look through people's confidential information.

The home was criticised for not having enough staff on duty during both day and night shifts, despite claims from the provider it was working to address the issue.

"However, during our inspection, people, their relatives and staff told us both shifts were regularly short staffed, leading to delays in attending to people's needs and a failure to supervise people safely at all times," inspectors wrote.

"For example, one person told us, 'Sometimes you ring the bell and it's ages before they answer. I wait a long time. I am sure they are short of staff.'

"A relative told us, 'Sometimes I can sit in the [main lounge] and there is no member of staff [to supervise the people in the lounge]. I am always worried that someone is going to fall over. All these people in here and no staff. It does worry me. There should always be one member of staff at least.'"

The home had been found to have made some improvement when it came to ensuring people had a balanced diet, with comments from people living in the home saying they enjoyed the food.

One person told inspectors "the food is pretty good and if I ask for something different they'll get it" while another said "The cherry pie is good!"

Inspectors said despite the arrival of an "exceptionally candid" new manager at the home who was well-liked by everyone they spoke to, more work needed to be done by leaders to ensure the service it provided was safe.

The report states: "The registered manager confirmed he had to personally amend the rotas before they were finalised, to ensure sufficient staff were rostered to meet the minimum staffing levels he had identified as being necessary to care for people safely and effectively."

When Lincolnshire Live called the care home about the report it was told the care home would not be providing a comment.

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Damning report released on care home for people with dementia - Lincolnshire Live

You probably know that your sweet tooth affects your waistline, but did you know it can also be harmful to your heart?

A 2014 study showed that a diet high in sugar puts you at a greater risk of dying from heart disease, even if you arent overweight. If at least 25% of calories in your daily diet come from added sugar, you are twice as likely to die of heart disease than if your diet included less than 10% of total calories from added sugar.

Sugar can affect your heart by:

Increasing the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, which in turn increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Spiking blood sugar levels (and so insulin levels), which increases your risk of obesity and heart disease.

Stopping triglycerides (fat in the blood connected with cardiovascular disease) from breaking down.

Lowers the level of HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) while raising LDL (bad cholesterol) levels.

Increasing blood pressure through increasing sodium accumulation in the body.

Sugar is added to most processed foods, which most Americans consume daily. Refined sugars are also found in all of the sweet treats lining your pantry shelves. They are even found in yogurts, salad dressings, ketchup, and other common condiments. On average, Americans consume 66 pounds of sugar per person per year. That equals nearly 20 teaspoons per day.

Limiting sugar in your diet can not only decrease your risk of heart disease, but it can also help with your overall health. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends sugars should not take up more than 10% of your daily calories (based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet). The American Heart Association recommends women should not consume more than 24 grams of sugar per day, and men should have no more than 36 grams. Just four grams of added sugar is equal to one teaspoon.

Tips to limiting sugar, include:

Read all food labels. Sugar can be hidden on labels. Sugar may be named brown rice syrup, barley malt, beet sugar, agave, and sucrose.

Avoid processed foods. By cooking with whole foods and shopping the outside aisles of the grocery store, you can naturally decrease sugar consumption and increase the amount of vegetables and fruits you eat.

Avoid sugary drinks. Replace soda with carbonated water with a squeeze of lemon or splash of fruit juice.

Remember that all calories are not equal. You should work to eat a balanced diet with 30% lean protein, 30% good fat, and 40% low-glycemic carbohydrates.

Sugar can also be very addicting. The more you consume, the more you crave. Moderation is the key to staying healthy and keeping your heart healthy. It is important to ignore the constant barrage of advertising and messages tempting you to eat more sugar your heart and your waistline, will be better for it.

Dr. Michael Desiderio is a cardiologist at UPMCs Heart & Vascular Institute. He earned his medical degree at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and completed his residency at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. Dr. Desiderio sees patients in the Health Innovation Center at UPMC Williamsport, 740 High St. To schedule an appointment with Dr. Desiderio, call 570-321-2800.

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How sugar affects the heart | News, Sports, Jobs - Williamsport Sun-Gazette

Gwyneth Paltrow gets a vampire facial in the fourth episode of Goop Lab.

Netflix's The Goop Lab follows Gwyneth Paltrow and the team that runs her wellness brand, Goop, as they experience various alternative wellness practices, from meeting with a psychic to taking aworkshop about how to orgasm. In The Goop Lab's fourth episode, The Health Span Plan, Paltrow, chief content officer Elise Loehnan and Goop's marketing VP Wendy Lauria explore the societal obsession with antiaging and the often expensive lengths many go to avoid it.

In their quest for eternal youth, members of the Goop staff try several different diets reported to reduce the risk of age-related disease, including fasting, veganism and pescatarianism. Paltrow and her team also set out on a quest to find "more natural" alternatives to plastic surgery and fillers, like facials and acupuncture.

Aging is one of many things that medicine can't stop, so that raises the question: Is there any validity to these diets and treatments? Can you really slow down the aging process with food? That's what The Goop Lab sets out to determine and the results are, surprisingly, somewhat valid.

The Health Span Plan episode explores diets and skincare treatments that claim to have antiaging benefits.

The Goop team chats with Valter Longo, the director of the University of Southern California's Longevity Institute, about the practice of fasting and how it can have positive effects on health. He promotes his fasting mimicking diet in the episode (for which he has a book and a $250 diet kit that Paltrow tries). Notably, the group doesn't talk about other forms of fasting -- such as intermittent fasting or alternate-day fasting -- which can have the same health benefits as Longo's diet.

Paltrow also talks with Morgan Levine, who studies aging at the Yale Department of Pathology. Levine developed a method of calculating a person's "biological age," based on several factors that intend to predict how likely you are to get age-related diseases or be at risk for early death.

Paltrow, Loehnan and Lauria are tested for their biological age before starting a new diet for three weeks. Lauria followed a vegan diet and Loehnan did a pescatarian diet, while Paltrow uses Longo's kit (which includes a nut bar, soup packets and kale crackers -- appetizing, huh?) for a five-day fast.

At the end of the three weeks, all three have their "biological ages" retested. The only person whose age did not "lower" was Lauria.

To round out this antiaging episode, all of the women try three different facial treatments -- acupuncture, facial threading and a vampire facial -- that are supposed to be more natural than using typical dermatological treatments such as skin fillers and Botox injections.

Loehnen tries facial acupuncture, which is reported to boost collagen production. Lauria gets a "facial threading" treatment that involves sewing a plastic thread that dissolves after nine months into her face in an effort to boost collagen and lift the face.

A Goop employee tries facial threading, a less invasive way to get the effect of a face lift.

Finally, Paltrow gets a "vampire facial," which is when a facialist extracts platelet rich plasma from your blood, and then microneedles it into the skin on your face. The PRP is supposed to help the skin resurface and look rejuvenated. Paltrow seems a bit weirded out by the process but notes that there's an "overuse of that stuff," (referring to injections, fillers and plastic surgery), and at least "this is your own blood and not a toxin, it's a more natural way."

Right now, there is a lot of hype surrounding fasting, intermittent fasting and ketosis and how those diets might benefit our overall health. It's not all hype -- there's definitely some sound science here and it's likely to keep expanding.

During the episode, Longo presents his fasting mimicking diet, which involves "tricking" the body into a fasting state while allowing specific amounts of food for at least five days. The idea is to give your body just enough nutrients that it thinks it's fasting, but not so few that you encounter the negative effects of prolonged fasting like a weakened immune system and nutritional deficiencies.

Fasting can help improve your overall health, some studies have shown.

Longo says that his clinical trials on the fasting mimicking diet showed to "reduce risk factors for multiple age-related diseases." That's not totally bunk -- science shows that when you restrict calories for certain periods of time, it does promote longevity. A study on this type of fasting did show that it can be effective in improving health markers that put you at risk for age-related diseases such as BMI, body fat percentage and blood pressure. Fasting can also lower inflammation levels in the body, improve cognitive impairment in miceand can decrease insulin-like growth factor, a hormone linked to cancer. The research is promising.

While Longo's diet might be scientifically sound, I found it hard to wrap my mind around the idea that eating processed, packaged foods for five days could actually be better for you than eating whole, unprocessed foods. Surely you can hit the same macronutrient targets (low carb, low protein and a total of 750-1,000 calories per day) he cites is necessary to "trick your body that it's fasting" with real food?

I'd be interested in seeing studies on groups who do the fasting mimicking diet versus groups that follow a pescatarian diet (as Loehnan did in the show). Also, I'd like to see results in a study of participants who follow the fasting mimicking diet with Longo's food packets and bars versus the same exact macronutrients in whole food form. My guess is that the results could be pretty different.

The facial treatments in the episode are pretty extreme. While they are touted as "more natural" alternatives to plastic surgery or fillers, Goop did not provide much information on why these treatments are "better" for you.

When each practitioner did each treatment, it sounded more like an infomercial about why you should do it, rather than a scientifically backed procedure. The episode lacked real information or science on if these treatments are actually safe, and how they compare to fillers or Botox. No one (at least that we could see) challenged the practitioners about the safety or quality of what was going on.

Facial acupuncture is said to help stimulate the production of collagen in the skin.

The science behind facial acupuncture is promising, but there's still a lot of work to be done. As for the facial threading, aka the noninvasive face lift, a study published in JAMAconcluded that the results of the threading face lift are not effective enough to justify the patient's risk of potential complications from the procedure.

I would describe the facial threading procedure more as a cosmetic procedure and less of a facial treatment. Even though the Goop staff say it's more "natural" than a face lift, it seems pretty invasive to me. You see the doctor literally sew a plastic thread into her face and if that isn't invasive plastic surgery, I don't know what is. Nothing about this treatment says "natural alternative" to me. It just says, "here is another way to get a face lift, and it's temporary."

Goop has long been criticized for presenting highly inaccessible treatments, and that's the same in this episode. The vampire facial costs over $1,000, and the facial threading pricing can start at $1,500 and go up to over $4,000. Facial acupuncture is typically less expensive, but it depends on where you go and how many treatments you get.

There's nothing wrong with showing what these extreme treatments are like, it makes for entertaining television. But if Goop wanted to better serve its audience, perhaps it would have been more helpful to show more accessible options for natural beauty products, regimens or other useful skincare advice.

This episode of The Goop Lab presents a few valid and several questionable antiaging practices for your body and face. While fasting to improve your overall health is backed up by science, there are plenty of other more accessible and doable ways to improve your health through nutrition, exercise and lifestyle alone.

Focusing on the basics like sleep, drinking water, moving more and lowering stress seems more realistic, and then you can experiment with fasting if you think it could help you. Fasting is not a very accessible wellness trend in that it's difficult to do, you should do it under the supervision of a specialist, certain health conditions can prevent you from doing it and it can be really triggering for someone who has a history of eating disorders.

Because of this, fasting is not my favorite wellness topic to explore, and I would have loved to see Goop cover more of the actual science on the benefits other diets such as pescatarianism and veganism, or even better the benefits of eating more plant-based diet versus a restrictive plan like veganism or vegetarianism.

As for the facial treatments, I found it interesting to see the different procedures on the market, but unrelatable for someone who can't afford to drop $1,000 and up on a treatment. It would have been much more interesting to me if Goop had talked to skincare experts, dermatologists and other pros in the space who can teach people about good skincare regimens, habits, ingredients and explain what clean or natural beauty products can help.

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The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

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Can fasting reverse your 'biological' age? It can, according to Goop Lab experts - CNET

In The Politics of Weight: Feminist Dichotomies of Power in Dieting, Amelia Morris challenges the degree to which feminist debates about dieting often take the form of a binary whereby (womens) bodies are either sites of oppression or liberation. Instead, drawing on interviews with dieters, analyses of dieting programme materials, fat activism and black feminist scholarship, the book posits a more ambivalent middle ground, arguing for a promising path tonuanced understanding of how our bodies are shaped in relation to power and diet culture, writes Megan Dean.

The Politics of Weight: Feminist Dichotomies of Power in Dieting. Amelia Morris. Palgrave. 2019.

Find this book:

For decades feminists have criticised weight-loss dieting, accusing it of (among other things) reinforcing unrealistic and harmful body ideals, distracting from meaningful social and political engagement and being a tool of the patriarchy. Recently, body-positivity activists, including celebrities like actor Jameela Jamil, have spread their anti-dieting messages through social media, reaching new generations with the encouragement to reject dieting and love ones body as it is.

And yet, many people still diet. In the United States, 49.1 per cent of adults and 56.4 per cent of women tried to lose weight between 2013 and 2016. Ten of the top eleven strategies used toward that end were changes to diet. We have to assume that at least some of these dieters are aware of feminist objections to dieting. Indeed, Susan Bordo, whose book Unbearable Weight offers a canonical critique of dieting and weight-loss culture, has herself acknowledged participation in a commercial weight-loss dieting programme. Bordo is certainly not the only feminist who has considered joining Weight Watchers.

But why would anyone who thinks that dieting is a tool of the patriarchy go on a diet? Why would they engage in a practice that reinforces body norms they themselves reject? In short, why is knowing better not enough when it comes to dieting?

Amelia Morris explores these questions in her book The Politics of Weight: Feminist Dichotomies of Power in Dieting. Morris, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy at Royal Holloway University, situates what Ill call the ambivalent dieter within a broader feminist debate about the status of the body and its relation to power. As Morris characterises it, the main positions within this debate take the form of a dichotomy: bodiesspecifically, womens bodiesare either sites of oppression or opportunities for the exercise of liberty. Morris identifies the former perspective with radical feminists, such as Susan Brownmiller and Germaine Greer, and the latter with liberal and post-feminist scholars and writers, including Naomi Wolf, Catharine Lumby and Katie Roiphe.

Morris herself supports a third, post-structuralist position, which she identifies with Michel Foucault and feminist theorists like Sandra Bartky, Judith Butler and Bordo. According to this perspective, the body has a more ambivalent relationship to power than either side of the dichotomy suggests. Bodies exist, Morris writes, within a middle-ground of power (19). This middle ground is characterised by the claims that power works on and through the body in more subtle, mundane and insidious ways than oppression proponents would have it, and that the experience of freedom in relation to ones body is neither as attainable as the liberation side suggests nor a reliable sign that one is in fact free from pernicious forms of power.

The Politics of Weight argues that we should use this middle-ground approach to understand womens engagement in weight-loss dieting. Morris takes an interdisciplinary approach to this task, using interviews with British women dieters, body-positivity activists and fat-positive activists to highlight womens conflicted understandings and experiences of dieting, and the challenges of ridding oneself of an attachment to thinness as a source of happiness, comfort and confidence, even when one believes one should.

The first two chapters of the book discuss Morriss methodology and introduce the broader feminist debate about the body. In Chapter Three, The Dichotomy of Power in Dieting, Morris explores how this debate applies to weight-loss dieting in particular, and begins to make her case for a Foucauldian feminist approach. She does this in part by using interviews with dieters and analyses of dieting-programme materials to highlight some of the quintessentially disciplinary aspects of dieting, including the use of panoptic surveillance and the confession of dietary transgressions and weight gain to peers and group leaders at weight-loss meetings.

Morris is careful to point out that the feminist Foucauldian literature she favours has often ignored the relevance of race to the effects of power on the body. In Chapter Four, The O Factor: Foucault, Race, and Oprahs Body Journey, Morris attempts to address this gap through engagement with black feminist scholarship on the topic of Oprah Winfreys weight-loss projects. Morris highlights the ways that racist stereotypes like the Mammy and Jezebel structure understandings of black womens bodies. She suggests that the white hostility and ambivalence that met Oprahs dramatic weight loss can be understood as a response to Oprahs visible shift away from what white audiences perceived as a non-threatening, nurturing Mammy image. In this chapter and elsewhere, it is sometimes challenging to distinguish Morriss original contributions from her detailed discussion of the existing literature. Nonetheless, this chapter addresses an important issue and will point readers to some fascinating work on race and diet, such as Cheryl Thompsons 2015 paper, Neoliberalism, Soul Food, and the Weight of Black Women.

Chapter Five, Fat Activism and Body Positivity: Freedom from Dieting? will be of most interest to readers grappling with the complexities of resisting diet culture. Morris draws on fat-activist literature and practice to suggest that the insistence that we unequivocally love our bodies and reject dieting without ever looking back betrays a misunderstanding of how power works.

According to the Foucauldian picture Morris endorses, our subjectivities are shaped by our practices, including dieting. We can reject dieting but be left with emotions and self-understandings that have been shaped by that practice. This chapter draws attention to the ways fat activism can help reshape these aspects of subjectivity, while highlighting how widespread fatphobia limits such self-transformation. Rachel, a fat-activist performance artist, explains the limits of her work:

I dont think any of my work makes me feel liberated, because of re-opening that wound. You can make the space as safe as you want but weve all got to go outside afterwards and I cant make outside safe for me or for any of you.

Morriss discussion underscores the complications of resistance and the importance of a compassionate and nuanced understanding of how deeply many womennot to mention men and non-binary individualsare affected by diet culture.

Those acquainted with this area of research will find the books positions familiar, drawn from feminist and Foucauldian theorists Ive already mentioned as well as Fat Studies scholars like Samantha Murray. Throughout the book, Morriss interviews are mainly used to support rather than complicate or develop theoretical claims made by others. Some may hope for more dynamic engagement between theory and empirical work than is offered here. But the value of gathering relevant empirical evidence for theoretical claims should not be underestimated, and many theorists do not have the professional training to do so themselves.

While the books interdisciplinary approach and subject will be of interest to scholars in many different fields, I hesitate to recommend the book to those unfamiliar with the literature. The book suffers from poor copy-editing, which at times undermines the readability and reliability of the work. Of particular note are some significant citation issues that those new to the subject may not have the resources to recognise, such as a misquotation of Simone de Beauvoir on page 39.

Overall, though, The Politics of Weight tackles a topic of ongoing importance. Having a nuanced and accurate understanding of how our bodies are shaped in relation to power and diet culture is central to treating ourselves and others with compassion and respect. Such an understanding can also help us recognise what is needed to create the conditions so that knowing better can translate into doing better when it comes to dieting. The Politics of Weight argues for a promising path to this very worthy goal.

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Note: This article gives the views of theauthors, and not the position of USAPP American Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics.

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Megan Dean Hamilton CollegeMegan Dean is the Chauncey Truax Postdoctoral Fellow and a Visiting Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Hamilton College in New York. Her current research focuses on ethical issues relating to eating, specifically on the ways eating shapes the self and the implications of these self-shaping effects for clinical ethics, diet research, food policy and personal food choice. Dr. Dean received her PhD from the Philosophy Department at Georgetown University, and she has an MA in Philosophy from the University of Alberta.

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Book Review: The Politics of Weight: Feminist Dichotomies of Power in Dieting by Amelia Morris - USAPP American Politics and Policy (blog)

More and more people who want to lose weight are turning to the new "hormone diet." But what is it exactly? Does it work? Here's what science has to say about it.

Say goodbye to high protein diets, intermittent fasting, and the keto diet. Meet the latest fad: the "hormone diet." The premise of this diet is that if a person hasnt managed to lose weight after several attempts, its probably because their hormones are working against them.

Several books have been published on the subject, praising the merits of this technique. Apparently, following this specific diet, along with physical exercise, will make you lose weight fast by "tweaking" or "resetting" your hormones.

Despite this new diet's surge in popularity, most scientists are sceptical about it. Overall, the hormone diets nutritional approach actually isnt bad.

But if people do in fact loseweight from it, its not because they've 'reset their hormones,' but rather because they've created a deficit between how many calories they're consuming and the number of calories their body burns. As of now, there is no scientific proof that the hormone diet actually works by tweaking a persons hormones.

Moreover, not managing to lose weight despite a healthy and balanced diet and regular physical activity could be a sign of something more serious, like diabetes or an underactive thyroid. However, people who suffer from these ailments cant just go on a diet. They must first be treated and follow their physician's health plan.

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'The Hormone Diet': What Does Science Have To Say About This New Trend? - Gentside UK

Joe Rogan at the age of 52 is in absolutely incredible shape after completing the whole of January on a purely carnivorous based diet.

Rogan is known widely by many people around the world for a few different things he is a regular commentator and interviewer employed by Dana Whites UFC, as well as being an avid mixed martial artist himself.

Alongside his work in the world of MMA and the UFC, Rogan is also a successful stand-up comedian and is currently on tour in the United States he has previously noted how unlikely the two professions go together but went on to say that for whatever reason, it just seems to work.

As well as that, he hosts one of the most popular and listened to podcasts on the planet The Joe Rogan Experience in which he has world-famous guests on to discuss anything from stand-up, MMA to conspiracy theories.

The one main thing Rogan keeps a consistent theme throughout his many platforms is his promotion of leading an active and healthy lifestyle. He is often posting stories to his social media of him and his dog going for a run (HIS DOG, IN FACT, HAS HIS OWN INSTAGRAM PAGE!) as well as posting post-workout videos of him at the gym either after weight training or sparring.

Before the start of the new year, Rogan vowed to lean up his physique and become an even healthier version of himself and as a result, he embarked on the carnivore diet.

After a full month of dedicated diet throughout the whole of January, Joe Rogan finally revealed to his followers via his social media the changes he feels both physically and mentally.

Joe has stated many times on his podcast that a good workout often leads to a better state of mind and increased productivity.

Rogan revealed that he has lost a total of 12lbs since the start of January and has lost his love handles and has gained a tone of energy and stated that his energy levels had been more consistent as a result.

He cited that his energy levels used to fluctuate somewhat and also mentioned to his listeners that he, in fact, suffers from an immune disorder known as Vitiligo of which had appeared to improve since the diet though he is unsure of the direct correlation, it does seem a little coincidental.

Rogan closed out his message by stating how it was the best he had felt in a long time, and its only been one month.

In a bid to get healthy for the new year Rogan has followed the carnivore diet; this cuts out all vegetables, fruit, grains, nuts and seeds in favour of meat, fish and other animal foods such as eggs and a few dairy products here and there.

Last year, Rogan stepped on the scales on the set of his podcast and weighed 205lbs (14.5st) he later stated that it was the fattest he had ever been.

Rogan went onto say:

"I had a belly; a lot of people made fun of me, fat-shamed me. I lost all my fat, I lost the belly, I lost my love handles.

"I don't know if I'm gonna keep eating like this, but it was tremendously beneficial.

"I also have an auto-immune disorder, it's called vitiligo, and my vitiligo improved, I had a bunch of white spots fill in, so, I don't know.

"I went into this thing thinking this carnivore diet was wacky and probably thought it was nonsense, but this is as good as I've felt in a long time and it's just one month.

Rogan made fans aware in a jokey social media post that he had suffered a severe bout of diarrhoea but noted that this passed and now feels great.

At the age of 52, Joe Rogan puts all of us to shame and is definitely one to watch, if not for health advice, tips and tricks but because he is so damn entertaining! whether it be from the Octagon, the stand-up stage or behind the microphone OR ALL OF THEM!

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Joe Rogan reveals his new, stacked physique after a month of following the carnivore diet - GIVEMESPORT