Sinead Brophy, a personal trainer and nutrition andhealth coach, writes about the narrative shift in diet culture, as more people learn to listen to and trust their bodies.

I'm celebrating that I havent "worked out" in two months. Given Im a coach, that might come as a surprise. But as the pandemic rolls on, its the kind of narrative-switch many of us are experiencing when it comes to health and fitness.

Diet culture is all around us. Its in Instagram posts, TikTok calorie-counting videos and in the 30-day "Booty Blaster" challenges that we sign up to and give up after day three. It is the voice in our head that still tells us "bread is bad".

There is a societal, collective narrative that tells us that "smaller is better", "leaner is better", "training more is better". And as a coach, it is exhausting to see the amount of time and energy people especially women put into what foods they eat, how much they eat, and how many sessions a week they train.

This has continued in a way even into the pandemic, with many feeling pressured to account for the weight they may have put on, or "use" any freed up time to chase the look they've always wanted.

Mindset shiftBut just as the pandemic worsened the pressure to look a certain way for some, it liberated others from the choke hold of diet culture.

More people are declaring themselves body-positive, anti-diet-culture and inclusive. There seems to be a shift: that, perhaps focusing on sustainable, long-term changes that prioritise our mental and physical wellbeing is the way to go.

Across Instagram and TikTok, more and more content is shifting away from promoting a certain body ideal. Where once we saw a slew of Before and After photos, we now see people sharing and celebrating their stretch marks, their blemishes and their fat rolls. In place of calorie-counting, we see messages of intuitive eating and moving to feel good.

This shift in narrative is helping people especially women release themselves from the shackles of food and exercise rules. The obsession with "good" and "bad" foods can lead to black and white thinking that sucks the joy out of eating.

This polarised approach to food and exercise can result in cycles of overeating, overexercising and feelings of shame and guilt. Similarly the focus on obtaining "perfect health" and wellness can mean some women are consumed by the idea of only eating organic, "clean'' foods.

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Trusting your bodyIn its place, we are now seeing women in Instagram Reels and TikTok videos eating foods that were previously "off-limits" and sharing the message that losing weight is not their sole purpose in life.

Taking a week off from exercising or adjusting your training because you are worn out is the kind of self-care that many women wouldnt have considered even a year ago and now we see the message shared more.

Trusting our bodies plays an essential role in this. Subtle hunger cues like a rumbling stomach are our bodies natural way of telling us that we need to eat.

Many women have shut these signals down through years of dieting and hunger suppressing tricks like chewing gum or drinking coffee. Listening to these cravings for carbohydrates, fats and proteins is healthy because our bodies need a mix of these three macronutrients to thrive.

It is important to listen to our bodies when it comes to exercise too. How many times have you forced yourself through a workout when you are exhausted only to injure yourself, lose your period or come out feeling even more depleted?

The female physiology and menstrual cycle is particularly susceptible to stress, either psychological or physical. If we can become more in-tune with how we are feeling, we can better adjust our training sessions to improve our overall health and wellbeing rather than hinder it.

UnlearningThese can be hard lessons to unlearn, and for me, I had to battle through diet-culture, eating disorders*and body dysmorphia to reach this point.

From the age of just 12 I was fixated with losing weight and looking a certain way. I would steal my Mums weight-watcher books and memorise all of the 0-point foods to eat. I ripped out all of the emaciated images of Nicole Richie and Amy Winehouse, idolising their so called "heroin-chic" look.

By age 15, I had spiralled into bulimia which, despite first getting help for at the age of 16, I continued to struggle with up until two years ago.

Although I stopped making myself sick at the age of 21, I purged in other ways, namely through exercise. I would pick the hardest HIIT class and destroy myself no matter how exhausted I was that day. I tried every diet there was: Keto, the Clean Eating Diet, the Cayenne & Lemon Juice Diet, the Fruitarian Diet, I did them all and often under the pretense of 'health.

It consumed me and it consumed my relationships. Movie nights with friends would descend into binging sessions. Meals out with family were to be feared. I refused to wear shorts during the summer and I would cry with envy at the size of my friends legs in comparison to my own.

I am not suggesting that everyone with disordered eating patterns will go on to develop an eating disorder. Eating disorders are complex, psychological disorders that are often a coping mechanism for something else. Nor am I demonising anyone's goal of losing weight or changing their body-composition. I am however, trying to highlight the insidious nature of diet-culture and how it can trick us into not trusting our own bodies.

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This can be a revolutionary and sometimes uncomfortable concept for many of us. So, here are my tips to embrace food and exercise as a way to nourish your body.

1. Ask why?If you feel the pressure to lose weight or look a certain way, ask yourself "why?" Is it because you feel you should or is it for another reason? Then ask, will this 'why add something to your life? For example, are you trying to get fitter and move better so that you can play with your kids? If you cant figure out your 'why or it is causing you a lot of distress, it may be worth speaking to a coach or a therapist.

2.Focus on slow, steady, sustainable changeAs a habit-based coach, I truly believe that long-term sustainable change is much more effective and a more balanced approach than quick-fixes. I help shift my clients focus away from weight-based or appearance-based metrics, and focus more on how they are feeling, their energy, their mood, their menstrual cycle symptoms, and/or their sleep. Often when we focus on these health and wellbeing metrics, our body composition (not weight) can change as a secondary result.

3.Step away from calorie-countingUnless you are a physique competitor or an elite athlete you do not need to be religiously counting calories. I believe that food is so much more than a number; it is something that fuels you, nourishes you, and brings people together.

Getting an idea of how many calories you are eating weekly can be useful every now and again. This is only if it doesnt trigger you, however, as many women are drastically undereating: 1,200 calories is what a 4-8 year-old girl needs not what an active woman needs, which is to 2,000 - 2,500 calories or more depending on their activity level.

Focusing on three to four balanced meals a day centred around mostly whole-foods, with snacks when needed is a much more enjoyable way to approach eating. Or what about learning to eat when you are hungry, stopping when you are full, and eating all foods without guilt?

4.Reframe food and exercise as a way to nourish yourselfAs someone who spent years of her life seeing food as the enemy and exercise purely as a means to punish myself for my failures of sticking to my weight-loss plan, I can tell you that it doesnt work. And if it does, it is short-lived, white-knuckle, every-day-is-battle sort of success, which isnt really a success at all.

Similarly with exercise, are you dragging yourself out of bed to do that gruelling workout you found online that doesnt take into account your training level, work-life balance, or cycle health? Move to feel good, get stronger, and improve your heart health, bone density and mood. There are so many different ways of being active. Bring it back to what you enjoy and your why.

5.Work with a professionalThis whole concept can be scary and unnerving for many of us. We have subtly or not-so-subtly been brainwashed with the idea that we cant be trusted around food and that we need to be in a boot-camp to get results. Yes, accountability helps and that is a large part of what coaches do to support their clients, but is that accountability empowering you with the tools to continue to make long-term, sustainable change to your life after that coach is gone?

Find a coach that aligns with your values and can help you navigate the quagmire of Diet Culture and body-image. And remember, if the thought of loosening the reins even just a little brings an extreme level of distress, or if you or a loved one feel that your focus on exercise and food is impacting your overall quality of life, then it could be worthwhile reaching out to a psychologist or therapist who can help you.

- Written by Sinead Brophy

*For more information visit Bodywhys.ie, phone their helpline on 1890 200 444 or email alex@bodywhys.ie.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RT.

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Unlearning the toxic lessons of diet culture living - RTE.ie

According to previous studies, youth who are obese when they begin chemotherapy are more than twice as likely to have remaining cancer cells after 1 month of treatment compared to their lean counterparts.

Research conducted at the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles indicates that modest changes in diet and exercise can greatly increase survival in youth treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that by limiting calories and increasing exercise we can make chemotherapy more effective in eliminating leukemia cells within the first month of therapy, decreasing the chances of disease relapse in children and adolescents, said principal investigator Etan Orgel, MD, MS, director of the Medical Supportive Care Service in the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, in a press release.

According to previous studies, youth who are obese when they begin chemotherapy are more than twice as likely to have remaining cancer cells after 1 month of treatment compared to their lean counterparts. The research team worked with registered dietitians and physical therapists who created personalized diet and exercise plans for 40 patients between 10 and 21 years of age with newly diagnosed leukemia.

The investigators found that patients who reduced their caloric intake by at least 10% and began a modest exercise regimen beginning at diagnosis were approximately 70% less likely to have remaining leukemia cells in their bone marrow 1 month after beginning chemotherapy compared to previously treated patients who did not participate in the diet and exercise intervention.

This is proof of concept that it is possible to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy without adding other medications and their potential side effects, Orgel said in a press release. This short-term intervention is inexpensive and easily available to providers and families everywhere.

In addition, the investigators found that by limiting fat, patients had decreased insulin resistance as well as increased levels of adiponectin, a metabolic hormone associated with glucose regulation. Identification of these potential biomarkers paves the way to using this intervention to impact other types of cancer, according to the study authors.

Changing diet and exercise made the chemotherapy work betterthats the big news of this study. But we also need to figure out how, said Steven Mittelman, MD, PhD, chief of Pediatric Endocrinology at UCLA Mattel Childrens Hospital and member of UCLAs Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, in a press release. Understanding the biological changes responsible for this effect will help us make these interventions even better.

REFERENCE

Diet + exercise + chemo = increased survival in youth with leukemia. Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. Published April 1, 2021. Accessed April 2, 2021. https://www.chla.org/press-release/diet-exercise-chemo-increased-survival-youth-leukemia

Excerpt from:
Diet, Exercise With Chemotherapy Leads to Increased Survival in Youth With Leukemia - Pharmacy Times

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has just been for a swim. Not in a heated indoor pool, silly - those are for wimps, and anyway theyre still closed due to Covid. Instead, the celebrity chef-cum-television star-cum-campaigner has become one of those cold water swimming people.

He started two years ago with the gateway drug of cold showers and baths, and has since graduated to the real deal.

Ive already been in the pond this morning, which is currently about seven degrees, he tells me over Skype from his East Devon home. Its quite nippy.

I am happy to take his word for this. Hes now wrapped in a chunky cardigan and thermals, thawing out near the wood burning stove in his garden office while evangelising about how his morning ritual provides a connection with nature as well as this extraordinary buzz.

He adds: Ill be shedding my thermals at some point shortly.

Whether or not cold water immersion appeals (it doesnt), the Fearnley-Whittingstall pandemic set-up sounds enviable. Beneath beautiful big skies, hes been growing his own vegetables, rearing livestock and exploring wild flowers, while the rest of us dragged ourselves daily around the local park with grim determination before returning to our screens. He even makes home-schooling the youngest of his four children, aged 11, sound fun.

Its been great, he says.

Sorry, what?

Im perhaps slightly guilty of tailoring lessons to some of my own passions and pleasures, but I got stuck into the maths homework as well.

Hes been good about the drinking, too, avoiding alcohol two or three nights a week (sometimes even more), and has managed not to gain any lockdown weight (nor, he admits, lose any).

Read this article:
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: 'Britain needs to be put on a diet as a matter of urgency' - Telegraph.co.uk

Not only can late-snacking derail your weight loss goals, but it also may negatively impact your productivity at work.

A new study published in the Journal of Applied Psychologyfound that people who reported eating unhealthy snacks, particularly late at night, struggled to be a team player at work the following day. For the study, researchers at North Carolina State University asked 97 full-time employees in the U.S. to answer a series of questions three times a day for 10 days straight.

Participants answered questions about how they felt emotionally and physically before the workday began and by day's end, they answered questions on what they accomplished. Then, before they went to bed, subjects recorded what they ate and drank after work. (Related: 15 Underrated Weight Loss Tips That Actually Work).

For the purpose of this study, "unhealthy eating" was used to describe moments where subjects felt like they'd overindulged in food or drink, had too much junk food in particular, or had too many late-night snacks. What the researchers found? Those who participated in unhealthy eating behaviors were more likely to report having physical and emotional issues the next morning.

Common physical complaints included headache, stomachache, and diarrhea. Mentally, participants who engorged the night prior said they felt guilty and or even ashamed about what they ate.Even more interesting, these people also reported changes in their behavior at work, saying they had less inclination to help colleagues go the "extra mile."

Instead, participants who engaged in unhealthy eating behaviors felt more comfortable withdrawing, meaning they avoided work-related situations despite being at the workplace.

"The big takeaway here is that we now know unhealthy eating can have almost immediate effects on workplace performance," Seonghee "Sophia" Cho, the corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State University, said in a statement.

"However, we can also say that there is no single 'healthy' diet, and healthy eating isn't just about nutritional content. It may be influenced by an individual's dietary needs, or even by when and how they're eating, instead of what they're eating."

Subjects who were better able to cope with stress didn't suffer from as many adverse side effects from healthy eating as those who were a bit more emotionally volatile. Overall, those who overindulged in either food or alcohol (or both) the night before work reported notable changes in how they behaved at work the next day.

For tips on healthier things to eat when that urge to eat in late at night strikes, be sure to check out 15 Healthy Late Night Snacks for When the Midnight Munchies Hit.

Go here to read the rest:
One Major Side Effect of Late-Night Snacking, Says a New Study | Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

A FEW YEARS AGO, The New Yorker ran an essay entitled Anorexia, the Impossible Subject, an autobiography-meets-literature-review of the disorder. The critic dubbed anorexia an impossible subject because any writing about anorexia makes it more interesting than it really is. If we want to protect young girls pliant brains and bodies from self-starvation many writers professed purpose for committing hundreds of pages to the subject then wed paint anorexics as they are: slowly suicidal obsessives who avoid other people and expend ninety-five per cent of their mental energy counting the calories in green vegetables. Two years later, a different critic, in an essay in Slate, declared anorexia the enemy of writing. And then, two years after that, a third critic, in another New Yorker piece, criticized filmmakers tendency, in movies on the subject, to draw from the poisonous worship of bodily discipline and deprivation that already surrounds young women to fascinate viewers. She goes on to wonder if its even possible to make responsible art about anorexia. Two writers with novels coming out this winter didnt heed these warnings to avoid the subject, and one of them proves that anorexia actually can be fodder for interesting writing.

Ill start with that book. Scarlett Thomass Oligarchy originally published in 2019 in the UK and out now in paperback from Counterpoint follows a crew of long-limbed, rich 15-year-olds at a British boarding school. In one dorm, theres Tiffanie (the hot French one), Bianca (a looming skeleton), Rachel (huge and doughy), Lissa (greasy), and Donya (unremarkable). Then, theres our protagonist Tash, the new girl, fresh off the plane from Russia where her absentee oligarch dad suddenly entered her life and promptly shipped her off to Britain. At school, she adjusts quickly: she grows just as bored and morose as her roommates. Their parents barely call. Their dowdy teachers silo them away from the boys at the brother school across the lake. The headmaster limits their wi-fi to one hour a day and pares down the endless web with parental controls until its basically useless. Theyre the boarders, the imprisoned. So, whats a group of over-surveilled, underloved teenage girls who want to learn everything but know close to nothing supposed to do? Invent and follow new diets, of course. Heres Tashs: no farmed fish, any meat at all. Any dairy at all. [] Tomatoes. Aubergines. Any nightshade fruit at all. Sure, theres little logic behind the cans and cannots, but theres even less logic behind the arbitrary rules parents and teachers impose.

Only silent, sullen Bianca actually sticks to the diets, crumbling her dessert into tiny pieces that she feeds to the birds. Bianca hides her bony body under knee-length skirts. Still, the girls can see her brittle talon arms. Biancas severe frame reflects a sense of peril lurking in the school. Will their go-to snack, meat paste, add inches to their hips? If it doesnt, could it infect their brains with mad cow disease? At first, the threat of something sinister seems like wishful thinking, adolescent girls desperately forcing drama into their mundane countryside days. But these girls arent simply prone to hyperbole. One night around bedtime, Bianca goes to the headmasters house for a late-night scolding (she cussed out the ballet teacher who claimed she was too thin to dance). A few days later, Dr. Moone calls at the dorm. They all expect their own scolding. Instead, he tells them, Bianca is dead she drowned herself in the lake.

The school supplies no real explanation for how or when Bianca went from the headmasters house to the bottom of the lake the headmaster tentatively brands it an anorexia-driven suicide. Tash thinks: what, Bianca walked anorexically past the lake and then slipped anorexically into it? As the girls invent theories and pass around their wisdom as whispered gossip, someone else dies their beloved biology teacher, Dr. Morgan. By suicide, in the same lake. One mysterious death could be a fluke, but two makes it a pattern. This twist swiftly redeems the teens. Dont disregard the shallow girls hunches: they obsess over nothing, until it suddenly proves to be something. It also orients the reader to the girls true danger: theyre trapped and controlled by drab, nefarious adults who stockpile secrets.

The double suicide turns the novel into a thriller. Tiffanie and Tash dont believe the headmasters far-fetched explanation for Dr. Morgans death (he allegedly hoarded nudes of underage girls, including ones of Tash and Tiff, and, when confronted by the school, drowned himself out of shame, or fear, or something). While Tash determines to solve the mystery of why the headmaster lied, the other students mourn their teachers death it turns out that even the most heartless of the girls actually loved Dr. Morgan, although of course no one can love him now. As the girls grieve silently and puzzle over the deaths, they get serious about their diets. Rachel, one of the chubbier girls in the class, returns from winter break much thinner. The other girls watch her at meals, fascinated by someone with a plan, a girl who lives by a set of rules they can identify and mimic. Plus, she looks amazing. Tiffanie stops eating carbs. Lissa aims to lose so much weight that shell be hospitalized before her sisters wedding. Eventually, no one eats anything, at least not in public. They all cry. They say bitchy things, point out their friends cellulite. Everyone has sort of flopped. They are hanging over their chairs like old coats.

The school hires Tony and Dominic, two Scottish therapists who look like pedophiles, to run militarized group therapy sessions in which they force the girls to share their [r]eally, really real worst memories of food. If a girl insists that she doesnt binge, purge, or starve, the therapists declare her defensiveness the ultimate evidence that she is very sick in the head. These scenes verge on schlock the meathead therapists are a bit too brainless but they culminate in a point. Mindlessly diagnosing every girl with an eating disorder placates the teachers and helps the girls not at all. Two people inexplicably died in the same lake and all these girls got was the same bland psychiatric diagnosis.

Following girls who purposely starve themselves into a stupor could easily become grating, but it never does in Oligarchy. We stick with the girls through various diets, when their weight swings up and down and back up again because Thomas laces the lowest of lows with the enduring allure of not eating, taunting the reader with the hopes that keep the girls shaving off calories. Take Rachel; when she gains two pounds, she looks down at the number on the scale, sobs, then wonders if she could cry it all out. That it is, of course, herself her skin and bones and muscles but it feels like some foreign substance hijacking her carefully cultivated frame. She cuts her calories down to 500 a day. Only then, does the weight start to shift again to declare itself beaten and slink back off to wherever it came from Its a victory against some horrible error in biology that prevents her from being that is, appearing as the person shes supposed to be. Its only two pounds, but the moment feels devastating, not ridiculous, because Thomas neither conceals nor qualifies just how good Rachel thinks she will feel if she dropped the weight. Once she loses another stone, shell get her belly button pierced with a silver dreamcatcher crystal belly bar. For the first time ever, she knows that something like that could be hers. Thomass girls remain compelling because they so badly want whatever thinness offers that the origin or soundness of the impulse is beside the point.

Which brings me to the other novel Milk Fed by Melissa Broder, published in February by Scribner. The novel follows another Rachel, a 24-year-old talent agency assistant in Los Angeles. She spends her days calculating, then recalculating, the calories she will eat, planning when she will eat them, stretching out the actual eating process, and then burning off those calories on a stationary bike. Heres her lunch routine: a double turkey salad from Subway (no dressing), consumed alone, outside (to protect her habits from the employees wandering eyes). She caps this off with frozen yogurt, either from Yogurt World (a self-serve place where she can control her portions) or Yo!Good (better yogurt and fewer calories), also consumed outside, alone. She inherited this preoccupation with calories from her overbearing mother, the high priestess of food who always preached to abstain, abstain abstain. Rachels therapist prescribes a communication detox 90 days without talking to her mother. Hungry, lonely, and neglected on day seven, Rachel drags herself into Yo!Good and discovers that her usual frozen yogurt server, a gangly, mute boy, has been replaced by zaftig 21-year-old Miriam. Shes immediately taken with Miriam because it was as though she didnt know or care she was fat. In need of a substitute mom, Rachel interprets Miriams insistence on overfilling her frozen yogurt cups and ladling on-the-house full-fat fudge over the top as some version of love or, at the very least, some much-needed affection.

Far more forcefully than in Oligarchy, anorexia here is pinned on the parents: Rachel points to maternal neglect as the obvious origin of her eating problems. This very neat line from a bad relationship with mom to a bad relationship with food flattens Rachel but not in the way she wants. Broder relies on hyperbole to inflate anorexia into pure horror, the grim aftermath of a central childhood trauma. Free food at work is an avalanche of vegan donuts that threatened to suffocate me. At lunch, a client extended a basket of carbs threateningly close to my head and the overdressed arugula salad was but a slippery cadaver: death by oil, goodbye. Comparing an oily salad to death doesnt illuminate why eating oil feels deathly but, rather, sets up Rachels fear of fat as an obvious, borderline ridiculous neurosis. This melodrama (Broder often describes eating as like dying) simplifies Rachels psyche a terrible mother inflicted a terrible eating disorder that makes Rachel terribly miserable. Simple problems require simple solutions. Suddenly, theres a stranger who all but forces Rachel to fill her taut tummy, supplies her with so many sweets that her hunger doesnt just subside but disappears. And so Rachel keeps returning to Yo!Good, despite her years-long diet, to visit the doting Jewish mother she always wanted. Halfway into the novel, when she briefly sleeps with Miriam, Rachel improbably starts eating in the way she imagined normal people ate: three squares, some snacks, whatever I wanted, really, with a feeling of impunity, and without bingeing to the point of illness.

Broder seems too intent on proving that anorexia is bad. That 2013 New Yorker critic called anorexia an impossible subject in part because refusing food at the expense of bodily function is not an easy addiction to convey. Constantly playing up anorexia as totally grotesque and bizarre doesnt convey the appeal of starving, which is essential to understanding why Rachel would do something like scarf down a diet protein bar in the bathroom stall (next to someone defecating) at a work party. Broder evokes the appeal of starving in a few throwaway lines, cycling through vague, psychologist-supplied wisdoms about why girls go anorexic. Skinny girls seem cocooned by an absence of flesh from judgment, hurt, or shame, [w]hile the algebraic formula was imperfect, it allowed me some illusion of control, and I wanted to be perfect. And by perfect, I meant less. It sounds like WebMDs anorexia summary: symptoms include feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, anxiety, anger, or loneliness, people with anorexia often use food and eating as a way to gain a sense of control, and they tend to be perfectionists. Its a one-size-fits-all explanation that feels hollow and turns Rachel into an anorexic cribbed from the DSM rather than a character in a novel.

Take the first time Rachel eats one of Miriams caloric sundaes in lieu of half-filled, fat-free froyo. Rachel cant determine the calories in the peanuts, fudge, and strawberry syrup so she resolves to bury it under more food, otherwise known as a binge. Before she inaugurates this binge with a slice of carrot cake, she likens the impulse to cutting off my head because of a headache. This habit Broders undermining of the allure of starving and binging with didactic asides that prove Rachel knows her habits are wrong and silly alienates us from the character. Rachels relentless awareness of her diets misguidedness an awareness that the young girls in Oligarchy lack thwarts the sense of longing and danger that presumably prompted a diet in the first place, making her behavior inscrutable. I dont understand why she endured these years of starving and binging if she never even believed, however navely, in some payoff.

The girls we follow in Oligarchy arent obsessed with being pro-ana or anti-ana they are obsessed with what they want. They dont always know what they want, or why they want it. But Thomas doesnt ignore or justify their desires, which is why the girls desperation e.g., subsisting only on pineapple isnt irritating or pitiable. Broders almost exclusive focus on the woes of anorexia doesnt make her book responsible, a cautionary tale about eating disorders; rather, it estranges us from the protagonist. Marya Hornbachers 1998 memoir Wasted now the anorexia ur-text summarizes the anorexic impulse like this: I remember wanting. And I remember being at once afraid and ashamed that I wanted. The only reason the fear and shame hold any weight is because they qualify something that is so plainly, so clearly wanted.

Continued here:
Fear of Wanting - lareviewofbooks - lareviewofbooks

Last month marked the one-year anniversary of Gov. Gavin Newsoms first stay-at-home order to try to thwart the coronavirus as it took hold in California.

As I look back over the past year I realize that, while there has been a strong focus on mask wearing, social distancing and getting vaccinated, we have not received any information or health education on how to stay healthy and fit.

Perhaps this would be understandable at the beginning of the pandemic, since we did not know how lifestyle-based approaches would affect outcomes for this pathogen. However, now there is plenty of research to support the premise that exercise, real food and a healthy lifestyle are critically important in reducing our susceptibility.

Just last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study that found almost 80 percent of those who died from COVID-19 were overweight or obese. And according to the latest statistics, 42 percent of the U.S. population is considered obese!

For decades, health-care professionals have cautioned people about the dangers of obesity. But those warnings have been largely ignored.

There could not be a better time than right now for public health to step up and educate the masses on what a healthy lifestyle looks like. COVID-19 is a much needed wakeup call for an overweight and out-of-shape America!

Everyone knows that exercise promotes good health. Countless studies have shown that people who work out are less likely than sedentary people to develop numerous health problems, including obesity, diabetes and hypertension, the most prevalent comorbiditiesassociated with COVID-19.

One of the greatest benefits of exercise is how it affects metabolism. Metabolism is the set of cellular mechanisms that generate energy from the food we eat and the oxygen we breathe in order to power every cell in the body, including the immune system. When these energy-producing pathways are running smoothly we have optimal metabolic health.

Beyond exercise, the Paleo diet has been shown to be effective in providing long-term weight loss, reductions in blood pressure and even reversal of type-2 diabetes.

The Paleo diet is primarily anti-inflammatory; it is naturally low in carbohydrates, high in omega-3s and low in omega-6s, which makes it very effective for reducing inflammation. This diet consists of a variety of nutrient dense foods such as grass-fed meats, wild seafood and shellfish, fruits and vegetables, and nuts and seeds.

Others may benefit from the low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet. With a keto diet, you drastically reduce your carbohydrate intake and replace it with healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil, avocados, nuts, and the fats from fish, eggs and grass-fed meat.

Reducing your carbohydrates puts your body into ketosis, a metabolic state where your energy comes from ketone bodies instead of glucose.

The ketogenic diet is a natural way to recalibrate your bodys metabolism and dramatically improve its overall ability to function. In following the diet, your body will reward you by feeling and performing better, while dropping unnecessary body fat fast.

Time-restricted eating is another dietary approach that aims to help you lose weight and boost metabolic health. Time-restricted eating is a form of intermittent fasting in which you compress your food intake into a certain number of hours each day. People who practice time-restricted eating typically eat during an 8-12-hour window and fast the remaining 12-16 hours.

From an evolutionary perspective, time-restricted eating makes sense because early humans did not have access to food all day long as we do today in our modern world. Thus, eating without periods of fasting, which occurred naturally when food was scarce, may lead to disruption of the circadian rhythm and contribute to obesity and metabolic disease, over time.

Santa Barbara fitness professional Mikki Reilly is the owner of Fitness Transform and the author of Your Primal Body: The Paleo Way to Living, Lean, Fit and Healthy at Any Age. She can be contacted at [emailprotected]. The opinions expressed are her own.

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Mikki Reilly: In Fight Against COVID-19, Dont Ignore Exercise, Diet and a Healthy Lifestyle - Noozhawk

Face of InnoVAtion is a regular series from the VHA Innovation Ecosystem (VHA IE) focusing on VA employees who are working to change and save Veteran lives through innovation. This month meet Emily Hood, RDN, LDN, certified intuitive eating counselor, from the Memphis VA Medical Center; and Kwynn Mason MPH, RDN, LDN, CLS (Certified Lactation Specialist), from the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System.

Emily Hood and Kwynn Mason may work at separate VA facilities, but they both saw the same issue: Veterans do not have a good relationship with food. The two registered dietitians came to VA to improve the diets of the Veterans they had always admired, but often they would find that a Veterans relationship with food was based around dieting and guilt instead of healthy attitudes. Engaging with Veterans and hearing their personal stories was a privilege that strengthened the intimate connection both women have with their mission.

I became passionate about my project [Intuitive Eating] specifically because I constantly heard stories of my Veterans feeling burdened with the guilt or fault from their own diet failures, Mason said. They may even avoid seeking medical care because of the shame placed on them for their health status.

The pair, independently of each other, began working on programs that help Veterans develop healthier relationships with food instead of simply trying to diet to lose weight. After discovering they were both running similar programs, they merged their efforts into the Intuitive Eating: Improving Food Relationships Using Mindfulness (Intuitive Eating) program. This blended intuitive and mindful eating group meets once a week for 16 weeks and focuses on readjusting Veterans mindsets towards food and exploring how to re-shape negative behaviors into a more positive relationship with food. This is what helps the programs Veterans ultimately reach their health goals.

We wanted Veterans to have the opportunity to work toward improving their relationship with food without emphasis on weight loss, said Hood. Instead, Veterans are learning to recognize the subtle messages their body is sending them in terms of hunger, fullness, and satisfaction.

Feedback for Intuitive Eating has been extremely positive, with one Veteran participant saying, Intuitive Eating has helped me feel less crazy with food. I can learn to trust my body I have learned that my body doesnt want sugar 24/7.

When VHA Innovators Network (iNET) Innovation Specialist Dr. Indra Sandal discovered their work, she encouraged them to apply for the Spark-Seed-Spread Innovation Investment Program at the Seed level to test and pilot their program at other sites. Mason and Hood are now working with iNET to discover the tools and networks they need to advance their work.

Sometimes you just need to know where and how to start, said Mason. As in, who can help you bring your idea into fruition? Where can you go to assemble a team so that you can move forward with your project? What materials do you need? Those are the tougher hurdles to overcome when getting started. The innovators network can help you get those answers!

Allison Amrhein is the director of operations for the VHA Innovators Network and communications lead for the VHA Innovation Ecosystem.

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Faces of InnoVAtion: Kwynn Mason and Emily Hood - VAntage Point - VAntage Point Blog

If you have diabetes, and you also have gut issues, like diarrhea, constipation, gas, and bloating, youre certainly not alone. As many as 75 percent of people with diabetes also report having issues with their stomach or digestion.

Diabetes and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are both fairly common conditions, and its possible to have both at the same time. In fact, the two conditions may be related. Diabetes can damage the nerves around the gut and lead to symptoms of IBS, such as:

Some diabetes medications, as well as some foods that people with diabetes eat, such as foods high in fiber and sugar alcohols like sorbitol, can also affect the bowels, leading to diarrhea or constipation.

With a little extra effort, both IBS and diabetes can be managed through diet, medications, and stress reduction.

Diabetes and irritable bowel syndrome are two different conditions, and its possible to have them both.

IBS is a gastrointestinal disorder characterized by a group of symptoms that typically occur together. These symptoms may include:

IBS is thought to be related to problems with how your brain and your gut work together.

Diabetes occurs when your body cant make enough of the hormone insulin or cant use insulin effectively. Diabetes is a systemic disease. This means it affects many parts of the body at once.

People with diabetes have higher than normal levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood. This is known as hyperglycemia. Over time, high blood sugar can lead to complications in many parts of the body, including the gastrointestinal tract.

Many people with diabetes complain of:

Over time, high blood sugar from diabetes can cause damage to the nerves, called neuropathy, in the gastrointestinal tract. This can impair your brains ability to communicate with your gut.

The damage can cause a slowing down or speeding up of intestinal function, leading to either constipation or diarrhea common symptoms of IBS.

There are other ways that high blood sugar can lead to gastrointestinal symptoms:

In general, its best for people with diabetes to eat healthy foods with a high fiber content, like whole grains and vegetables, to help stabilize blood sugar levels. People with diabetes should try to avoid highly processed foods and foods high in sugar.

Some people with IBS may also benefit from a high fiber, low sugar diet, but sometimes foods high in fiber can trigger symptoms of IBS. Foods high in fiber include:

If you tend to have diarrhea as a result of IBS or diabetes, you may want to reduce the amount of soluble fiber in your diet. Soluble fiber is found in foods such as:

If you tend to get constipated as a result of IBS or diabetes, you may want to increase your intake of insoluble fiber, which is found in foods like:

Many people with IBS experience symptoms when they eat certain types of vegetables called cruciferous vegetables. Examples include:

Legumes, such as beans, may also trigger symptoms of IBS, though this isnt true for everyone. You may need to keep a food diary to track which foods trigger your symptoms.

Many people with diabetes try to limit their sugar intake, so they instead opt for sugar substitutes. Unfortunately, many of these are linked to GI symptoms and may need to be avoided if you have both diabetes and IBS.

Sorbitol and xylitol are two sugar substitutes that have been linked to GI symptoms. A good substitute for people with IBS and diabetes is a natural sweetener known as stevia.

You may be able to alleviate symptoms of both diabetes and IBS by making the following changes to your diet and lifestyle:

IBS may make it difficult for your body to digest food at a normal rate. Because of this, blood sugar levels may be unpredictable after a meal. Checking your blood sugar levels before and after a meal can help you determine how your body responds.

Both constipation, which is too few bowel movements, and diarrhea, which is frequent, loose bowel movements, are common in people with diabetes.

Its estimated that around 20 percent of people with diabetes experience frequent diarrhea, while up to 60 percent of people with diabetes experience constipation.

Fecal incontinence, a loss of bowel control, may also occur in people with diabetes.

Gastroparesis is a digestive condition characterized by delayed gastric emptying. This means that food stays in the stomach for too long rather than moving into the small intestine to be digested further.

Diabetes is the leading cause of gastroparesis. High blood sugar from diabetes can damage the vagus nerve the nerve that connects the brain to the gastrointestinal tract.

When this happens, the vagus nerve can no longer send messages that tell the stomach muscles to empty the stomach.

Symptoms of gastroparesis include:

Metformin is the most widely used oral type 2 diabetes medication. People newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are often prescribed metformin to manage their blood sugar.

Some people who start taking metformin experience side effects in the digestive tract like diarrhea, nausea, and abdominal pain. These symptoms typically go away over time as the body adjusts to the medication. You can reduce these effects by taking metformin with a meal.

You should see your doctor if youre experiencing frequent diarrhea or constipation or both, or youre having trouble managing your blood sugar levels with diet, exercise, and medications.

A medical professional will want to know about your symptoms and any medications that youre taking.

If you have diabetes, IBS symptoms like diarrhea, constipation, and bloating could mean that blood sugars are not under control. Long-term, this can lead to nerve damage in the GI tract.

However, these symptoms could also be tied to eating certain foods, consuming sugar alcohols, or taking certain diabetes medications, such as metformin.

See a medical professional if youre experiencing frequent diarrhea or constipation or having trouble managing your blood sugar levels. The earlier you treat diabetes, the less likely youll be to develop more serious complications, such as nerve damage and gastroparesis.

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IBS and Diabetes: What's the Connection? - Healthline