Eating for health

Last week you read the beginning of this article on the hazards of dramatic diets.

It’s your store of body fat that the “dramatic diet” industry makes a fortune from.

Back in the old days (when everyone was thinner) famine didn’t happen overnight.  A gradual decline in food availability let your body adjust to allow fat stored to be released for food replacement. Everyones’ body has a base nutritional point that maintains activity & body processes over a 24 hour period including rest. If we were going through a famine our nutrition intake reduces & our body registers a decline in our base nutrition point. Our body then reduces its’ function to save energy. It actually slows down to protect itself, and as a result stores as much fat as it can because it feels like it’s starving.
That means it’s really stingy about releasing fat because you’re not eating enough to maintain your base nutrition.

In “dramatic diet” terms weight loss on the scales turns out to be fluid & muscle as well as fat stores, & that’s not what you were after is it?

There are natural foods you can add to a sensible meal plan which help you lose weight & use more energy. They give you great nutrition & cost very little compared to diet plans.

When you get the urge to change everything overnight to lose weight you’re trying to hard & your body won’t work with you as well as it can. Think about it this way maybe?

Dramatic diets are like you saying to your body “We’re both starving here & we’re going to be under a lot of stress & in trouble unless you give me some fat to live on” Your body has no skill in this area & can’t trust you to help because you got it to this point.

On the other hand you might have a conversation that went “We’ve had some very good years & have got used to a little more than we need, so how about you & I eat a little differently so we both feel supported & calm, & you can give me some body fat every day to make up the difference.” Your body’s going to say “sure, no problem” because it can trust you & you both made the decision together.

The point I’m stressing is that your woman’s health can be badly affected for a long time by the nutritional trauma involved in dramatic dieting. Your nutrition requirements during your cycle are important factors in whether you crave chocolate, hold fluid & fat; have energy or don’t. Dramatic diets focussing on “losing weight” don’t consider this. In fact there’s not much in the diet industry that does consider women’s health specifically. When women’s health is built into your meal planning & goal setting a lot of the “weight loss” problems fix themselves.