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Diet culture is all around us. It influences how we speak and exercise, what we eat and wear, and even how we feel about and talk to ourselves. We are living and breathing diet culture every day, yet most people don’t even know it exists. That’s because it is so deeply embedded into our lives that it seems completely normal (until you start to do a little digging, that is).

What Is Diet Culture?

Diet culture is a system of beliefs and values that prioritizes body weight, shape, and size over health and well-being.

Diet culture places a moral value on behaviors, products, and goals that are designed to achieve a specific body type.

In the world of diet culture, thin bodies are the most valuable bodies, food can be neatly categorized into “good” and “bad,” and only certain kinds of exercise are worthwhile. The focus is on external goals instead of internal ones, and decisions come from a place of self-control instead of self-care.

You may be thinking, “But I’m not on a diet, so what does diet culture have to do with me?”

The thing is, you don’t have to be on a named diet like Keto or Whole30 to be participating in the culture of dieting. Most of us have been living in diet culture for so long that we have an internalized diet mentality that affects how we think about food, movement, and bodies.

How To Spot Diet Culture and the Diet Mentality In Action

If diet culture is all you’ve ever known, at first some forms of it can be tricky to pinpoint. With time and practice, it gets easier to identify diet culture around you and within your own mind.

The most obvious forms of diet culture employ mostly black-and-white thinking. Food is described with terms like clean and dirty, or healthy and unhealthy, leaving no room for nuance. Some foods seem to take on magical properties and are described as “detoxifying,” “super,” or “miracle” foods, while others are demonized for being “fake” and “junk.”

Under the diet mentality, the simple act of eating can easily turn into a guilt trip or shame spiral. Food decisions may be based on what you think you should be eating instead of what you want to eat, and restricting foods or food groups is common.

Mantras like “Every bite you take is either fighting disease or feeding it” get thrown around, implying that choosing the right foods to keep from getting sick is a personal responsibility and a moral imperative.

Diet culture teaches that exercise exists to atone for the sins of what we’ve eaten, and that exercise can be used to “earn” food. The language of exercise is of the harder, faster, stronger variety with an emphasis on a “no excuses” attitude.

Worst of all, diet culture equates weight and size with health. Not only does this ignore additional aspects of health beyond the physical (such as mental, spiritual, emotional, and social health), it also leads to weight stigma and normalizes the constant pursuit of weight loss, often to the detriment of actual health markers.

Diet culture also shows up in more devious ways.

It’s there when you and your coworkers are celebrating an office birthday and there’s a 5-minute discussion about who’s gluten-free that month, whether the cake is keto-friendly, and how “indulgent” a slice is. It’s there when you judge someone else for what they order at a restaurant or put on their plate at a party.

Diet culture is also there when you’re complimenting someone on their weight loss and whispering behind someone’s back about their weight gain. It’s there every time you believe your body is not to be trusted and that your natural hunger and cravings are a betrayal.

Diet Culture Is Harming Us in More Ways Than One

Diet culture’s harms are widespread. With diet culture in charge, we are expected to spend our valuable time, money, and energy in pursuit of looking a certain way and being “healthy” and “fit” enough. We are socialized to believe that we can earn our worth through weight and wellness. This distracts us from other important aspects of our lives, such as work, education, relationships, and rest.

Diet culture also contributes to the prevalence of eating disorders, which have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. It’s estimated that up to 30 million people have an eating disorder in the United States alone.¹ Many known eating disorder risk factors, such as body image dissatisfaction, weight stigma, and a history of dieting, are par for the course in diet culture.²

While diet culture harms everyone, its effects are especially detrimental to marginalized groups. That’s because diet culture reinforces existing systems of oppression.

For example, diet culture promotes a single body type (thin and visibly “fit”) as healthy and desirable. This ignores the reality of body diversity and perpetuates widespread fatphobia.

Additionally, the body type diet culture encourages is most often attributed to white bodies that conform to Western beauty ideals. This is inherently racist and contributes to a long history of white bodies being seen as the status quo while all other bodies are seen as less desirable and worthy.

Diet culture also has roots in classism. It pushes a mandatory “wellness culture” with prohibitive costs while ignoring issues like poverty and food availability. Further, diet culture is ableist in its insistence that we can all be “healthy” and stave off disease if we just buy the right foods, take the right supplements, and commit to the right exercise routine.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of the harm that diet culture causes or the types of oppression that it supports, but it does provide a foundation for helping you to understand that when diet culture is the norm, we all lose.

5 Tools For Dismantling Diet Culture

If you have been participating in diet culture and experiencing the diet mentality, you are not to blame for that. The system is at fault, not individuals, and this discussion about diet culture and the harm it causes is not intended to shame you.

Think of diet culture as a stream traveling in a single direction — it’s not only people knowingly swimming with the current who are following the water’s path, it’s also people who are passively floating in the stream.

But there is another option, and that is to actively swim upstream against the current by working to dismantle diet culture and your own diet mentality. It will take time and practice to unlearn years of diet culture behaviors and it won’t be easy (swimming upstream never is), but there are some steps you can take to get started:

1. Reject the Diet Mentality

Get rid of things that keep you stuck in the diet mentality like low-calorie cookbooks and your scale. Leave behind dieting and restricting for good, and don’t get distracted by the newest fad. Stop putting weight loss and leanness on a pedestal and revolving your life around achieving them to the detriment of your health and well-being.

Commit to catching yourself when you fall back on diet talk in social situations, and start to recognize your internalized food rules so you can practice letting them go.

2. Be Critical of the Language You Use

Once you know what the language of diet culture sounds like, you’ll start to notice it everywhere. Avoid language that:

• Moralizes food, such as good, bad, clean, naughty, sinful, cheating, cheat day, etc.
• Links food and exercise, such as “I earned that piece of pizza,” “I deserve that donut,” “I need to burn off that holiday stuffing.”
• Shames or demeans people for their choices, such as “Soda will kill you, you know,” “Cardio is a waste of your time,” “I think you’ve probably had enough to eat,” “Should you really be eating that?”
• Focuses on bodies, such as “You should think about losing some weight. I’m just worried about your health,” “You look amazing, have you lost weight?”

If you feel comfortable with doing so, you can also gently challenge others who use this language by explaining to them how problematic it is.

3. Learn to Eat Intuitively

If you’re going to leave dieting behind, you’ll need to find a new way of eating that doesn’t rely on external food rules. The practice of intuitive eating will help you become more aware of what’s going on inside your body, so you can start trusting your body again. By learning to eat intuitively, you’ll be able to reconnect with your hunger and fullness cues, focus on satisfaction, and stop restricting.

4. Nurture Your Relationship With Nutrition and Exercise as a Form of Self-Care

Loosen your grip on any of your previous practices that were rooted in obsession and perfectionism instead of real self-care. If the thought of getting fewer than 10,000 steps a day fills you with fear, it’s time to take off the activity tracker. If you’re used to all of your food choices being guided by calories and macros, get comfortable listening to your cravings instead.

Prioritize food and movement that makes you feel good instead of food and movement that you hope will make you look a certain way.

A good litmus test is asking yourself, “Would I still be doing X if I knew for a fact my body wouldn’t change as a result?”

5. Build Community

Ditching diet culture by yourself when it seems like everyone else is still stuck in it can feel awfully lonely. It helps to be in touch with like-minded people.

On social media, unfollow accounts that no longer fit your values, and search for new ones that include content about intuitive eating, joyful movement, and a weight-inclusive approach to health.

Look for groups online or locally in your area that are anti-diet and embrace body diversity. Educate yourself on these topics through books, podcasts, and candid conversations.

What If You’re Tempted to Return to Diet Culture?

Participating in diet culture is a form of social currency that most of us have been trying to cash in on all of our lives. Inevitably there will be times when you want to run back to its familiar embrace.

When that happens, feel your feelings, and remind yourself that you’re having a normal reaction. Getting diet culture’s siren song out of your head won’t be easy, especially in the beginning. But if you remain focused on all the reasons it’s important to dismantle diet culture, you’ll be able to keep swimming upstream, one stroke at a time.

References

1. National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, Eating Disorder Statistics. https://anad.org/education-and-awareness/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/
2. National Eating Disorders Association, What Are Eating Disorders? Risk Factors. https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/risk-factors

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Overtraining for long periods of time is bad. Short-term, planned overtraining, however, can be a massively powerful tool.

Functional overreaching is essentially short-term overtraining where you have a goal of digging yourself into a recovery ditch. You intentionally push your training past your body’s ability to recover before backing off, super-compensating, and jumping out of that recovery hole to new levels of strength and muscle. Doing so allows you to benefit from the harder training as your body gets a chance to recover.

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Have you tried hemp oil?

After almost a century of being outlawed, hemp—a form of cannabis with extremely low levels of psychoactive THC—is now legal in the United States. This is big news for people interested in the therapeutic effects of cannabidiol (or CBD) because—while hemp doesn’t contain enough THC, the compound that provides the “high” of cannabis, or any other psychoactive compounds—it does contain cannabidiol (CBD).

For years, all anyone talked about when they talked about cannabis was the THC content. Breeders focused on driving THC levels as high as possible and ignored the other compounds. Even pharmaceutical companies interested in the medical applications of cannabis focused on the THC, producing synthetic THC-only drugs that performed poorly compared to the real thing. It turns out that all the other components of cannabis matter, too, and foremost among them is CBD.

CBD doesn’t get you high, but it does have big physiological impacts. These days, researchers are exploring CBD as a treatment for epilepsy, anxiety, and insomnia. They’ve uncovered potential anti-inflammatory, anxiolytic, and immunomodulatory properties. And now that it’s quasi legal, hundreds of CBD-rich hemp oil products are appearing on the market.

What are the purported benefits of using CBD-rich hemp oil, and what does the evidence say?

Although CBD research is growing, it’s still understudied and I expect I’ll have to update this post in the near future with more information. But for now, here’s a rundown of what the research says.

The Health Benefits of CBD In Hemp Oil

CBD For Anxiety Reduction

Anxiety can be crippling. I don’t have generalized social anxiety, but I, like anyone else, know what it feels like to be anxious about something. It happens to everyone. Now imagine feeling that all the time, particularly when it matters most—around other people. The average person doesn’t consider the import and impact of anxiety on a person’s well-being. If CBD can reduce anxiety, that might just be its most important feature. Does it?

Before a simulated public speaking event, people with generalized social anxiety disorder were either given 600 mg of CBD or a placebo. Those who received CBD reported less anxiety, reduced cognitive impairment, and more comfort while giving the speech. Seeing as how people without social anxiety disorder claim public speaking as their biggest fear, that CBD helped people with social anxiety disorder give a speech is a huge effect.

This appears to be legit. A placebo-controlled trial is nothing to sniff at.

CBD For Sleep

A 2017 review provides a nice summary of the effects of CBD on sleep:

In insomnia patients, 160 mg/day of CBD increased sleep time and reduced the number of arousals (not that kind) during the night.

Lower doses are linked to increased arousals and greater wakefulness.

High dose CBD improved sleep; adding THC reduced slow wave sleep.

In preliminary research with Parkinson’s patients, CBD reduced REM-related behavioral disorder—which is when you basically act out your dreams as they’re happening.

More recently, a large case series (big bunch of case studies done at once) was performed giving CBD to anxiety patients who had trouble sleeping. Almost 80% had improvements in anxiety and 66% had improvements in sleep (although the sleep improvements fluctuated over time).

Mental Health

While its psychoactive counterpart THC has been embroiled in controversial links with psychosis and schizophrenia for decades, CBD may be an effective counterbalancing force for mental health.

In patients with schizophrenia, six weeks of adjunct treatment with cannabidiol resulted in lower rates of psychotic symptoms and made clinicians more likely to rate them as “improved” and made researchers more likely to rate them as “improved” and not “severely unwell.” There were also improvements in cognitive performance and overall function. It seems the “adjunct” part of this study was key, as other studies using cannabidiol as the only treatment mostly failed to note improvements.

This was placebo controlled, so it makes a good case for CBD hemp oil as adjunct treatment (in addition to regular therapy) in people with schizophrenia.

Among 11 PTSD patients who took an average of 50 mg of CBD per day for 8 weeks, 10 (90%) experienced a 28% improvement in symptoms. No one dropped out or complained about side effects. CBD seemed to particularly benefit those patients who had issues with nightmares.

This is promising but preliminary. This was an 11-person case study, not a placebo-controlled trial.

Epilepsy

A recent review of four human trials lays out the evidence: More than a third of all epilepsy patients experienced 50% or greater seizure reductions with just 20 mg of CBD. The effect of CBD on seizure activity is so widely acknowledged and understood that the only FDA-approved CBD-based product is Epidiolex, a plant-based CBD extract used to treat seizures in patients with Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.

CBD for epilepsy is legit. Side note: I wonder how CBD would combine with ketogenic dieting for epilepsy control.

Pain

By far the biggest draw for medical consumers of CBD is its supposed ability to nullify pain.

In one study, researchers induced arthritis in rats with intra-articular injections, then gave them CBD. Rats given CBD were able to put more weight on their joints and handle a heavier load before withdrawing. Local CBD reduced nerve damage.

That’s great for pet rats. What about people?

There actually isn’t a lot of strong data on pain management using CBD by itself. Far more robust is the evidence for using CBD with THC for pain. According to this group of researchers, the two compounds exert “constituent synergy” against neuropathic pain. One study found that low doses of each were more effective combined than high doses of either alone in neuropathic cancer-related pain. Another gave a THC/CBD oromucosal spray to otherwise treatment-resistant neuropathy patients, finding that the spray reduced pain, improved sleep, and lessened the severity of symptoms.

Anything Else?

Anecdotal evidence for pain relief and other benefits with CBD is vast. Chris Kresser, a practitioner and researcher I trust, swears by it. I have employees who use it quite frequently, reporting that it improves their sleep, hones their focus, reduces pain, speeds recovery, and reduces anxiety. These things are always hard to evaluate, but I can say that my people do great work, and I have zero reason to distrust them.

In later posts, I’ll probably revisit some of these other, more theoretical or anecdotal potential benefits to see if there’s any evidence in support.

Is It Safe?

A recent study gave up to 6000 mg of CBD to healthy subjects, finding it well tolerated and the side effects mild and limited to gastrointestinal distress, nausea, somnolence, headaches, and diarrhea. For comparison’s sake, keep in mind that a typical dose of CBD is 20 mg.

Mouse research indicate that extended high-dose CBD (15-30 mg/kg of bodyweight, or 1200-2400 mg per day for an 80 kg man) might impair fertility. Male mice who took high-dose CBD for 34 days straight experienced a 76% reduction in testosterone, reduced sperm production, and had dysfunctional weird-looking sperm. In the 30 mg/kg group, the number of Sertoli cells—testicular cells where sperm production takes place and sperm is incubated—actually dropped. Male mice taking CBD also were worse at mounting females and had fewer litters.

Those are really high doses. For epilepsy, a common dose is 600 mg/day, and that’s for a severe condition. Most other CBD therapies use much smaller doses in the range of 20-50 mg/day. Long term safety may still be an issue at these lower doses, but we don’t have any good evidence that this is the case.

There’s some evidence that the dosages of CBD required to achieve anti-inflammatory effects are also high enough to induce cytotoxicity in healthy cells, though that’s preliminary in vitro (petri dish) research and as of yet not applicable to real world applications. Time will tell, though, as the legal environment opens up and we accumulate more research.

Is Isolated CBD the Same As Whole Plant Extracts?

As we’ve learned over the past dozen years of reading about nutrition and human health, whole foods tend to be more effective than isolated components. Whole foods have several advantages:

• They contain all the components related to the compound, especially the ones we haven’t discovered and isolated. Supplements only contain the isolated compounds we’ve been able to quantify.
• They capture all the synergistic effects of the multiple components working together. Isolated supplements miss that synergy unless they specifically add it back in, and even then they’ll probably miss something.

It’s likely that whole plant hemp extracts high in CBD are superior to isolated synthetic CBD for the same reason. Is there any evidence of that?

A high-CBD cannabis whole plant extract reduces gut inflammation and damage in a mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease. Purified CBD does not.

Even at a 2:1 CBD:THC ratio, co-ingesting isolated CBD with isolated THC using a vaporizer fails to reduce the psychotic and memory-impairing effects of THC. In another study, however, smoking cannabis naturally rich in both CBD and THC completely prevented the memory impairment.

And as we saw in the pain section above, THC combined with CBD seems more effective against pain than either alone.

That’s not to say isolated (even synthetic in some cases—see note below) CBD isn’t helpful. We saw it improve joint pain and reduce nerve damage in arthritic rats. It’s just that full-spectrum hemp oil containing multiple naturally-occurring compounds is probably ideal for general health applications. Specific conditions requiring high doses may be another question entirely. Again, we’ll find out as more research comes out.

A word about synthetics: this is fodder for a follow-up, but it appears there may be additional concerns with synthetic CBD, and even supposedly “natural” CBD companies have in some cases allegedly added ingredients to their formulas without letting consumers know.

Is It Legal?

CBD-rich hemp oil lies in a legal grey area. The recently passed Farm Bill allows people to grow and make products from industrial hemp, as long as it contains less than 0.3% THC. That means CBD derived from industrial hemp is legal at a federal level. But because the Farm Bill has provisions that allow states to set their own rules, legality at a state level is more complicated.

States where hemp is still illegal—South Dakota, Idaho, and Nebraska—do not permit the sale or use of hemp-derived CBD oil.

In states that permit recreational cannabis—California, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Nevada, Michigan, and Alaska—CBD derived from both hemp and psychoactive cannabis is legal.

In all other states, hemp-derived CBD is legal.

The FDA has yet to approve of CBD, so most of the big online retailers like Amazon and Walmart don’t allow CBD products to be advertised. However, Amazon sells a ton of “hemp extract” tinctures and oils with “hemp extract content” listed in milligram dosages—a workaround for listing the CBD content.

If you’re looking for CBD-rich hemp oil, watch out for culinary hemp oil, which comes in larger quantities and has no discernible CBD content. CBD-rich hemp oil will come in dropper bottles, not liters.

You can also buy directly from manufacturers online who proudly advertise their CBD content. I’ve heard good things about Ojai Energetics and Sabaidee, though I haven’t used either.

Many health food stores sell it. Surprisingly, I’ve seen it in every pet store I’ve entered in the last half year.

Word of Caution: Because it isn’t regulated by the FDA yet, there’s no telling exactly what you’re getting. Choose a product with verifiable lab tests. Many CBD hemp oil products have far less CBD than advertised. In addition to CBD content, the most reputable manufacturers also test for pesticides, heavy metals, mycotoxins, and bacteria and advertise their results.

CBD-rich hemp oil is a hot topic these days, and it’s only going to get hotter. I think the compound shows great promise in promoting health and wellness, and I’ll look forward to doing more research as it unfolds.

For now, what about you? Do you use CBD? Have you noticed any benefits? Any downsides? Share your questions and feedback down below.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care.

References:

Bergamaschi MM, Queiroz RH, Chagas MH, et al. Cannabidiol reduces the anxiety induced by simulated public speaking in treatment-naïve social phobia patients. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2011;36(6):1219-26.

Lattanzi S, Brigo F, Trinka E, et al. Efficacy and Safety of Cannabidiol in Epilepsy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Drugs. 2018;78(17):1791-1804.

Elms L, Shannon S, Hughes S, Lewis N. Cannabidiol in the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Case Series. J Altern Complement Med. 2018;

Serpell M, Ratcliffe S, Hovorka J, et al. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel group study of THC/CBD spray in peripheral neuropathic pain treatment. Eur J Pain. 2014;18(7):999-1012.

Silva RL, Silveira GT, Wanderlei CW, et al. DMH-CBD, a cannabidiol analog with reduced cytotoxicity, inhibits TNF production by targeting NF-kB activity dependent on A receptor. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2019;368:63-71.

Carvalho RK, Souza MR, Santos ML, et al. Chronic cannabidiol exposure promotes functional impairment in sexual behavior and fertility of male mice. Reprod Toxicol. 2018;81:34-40.

Morgan CJA, Freeman TP, Hindocha C, Schafer G, Gardner C, Curran HV. Individual and combined effects of acute delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol on psychotomimetic symptoms and memory function. Transl Psychiatry. 2018;8(1):181.

Morgan CJ, Schafer G, Freeman TP, Curran HV. Impact of cannabidiol on the acute memory and psychotomimetic effects of smoked cannabis: naturalistic study: naturalistic study [corrected]. Br J Psychiatry. 2010;197(4):285-90.

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If you are in search of the perfect natural lubricant, don’t overlook the fact that many commercial brands contain ingredients that can cause both short term and long term health complications including discomfort, infection and even cancer. Be safe; make your own non-toxic lubricant at home. What are lubricants? Vaginal lubricants are substances that are […]

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Do you feel like you’re spinning your wheels every week in the gym? Are you clueless about your progress? Training programs are created in order to work around you, the individual. Don’t consider a one size fits all program, however.

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Have you come across CBD oil and wondered about its potential health benefits, safety, and effectiveness? Read on to learn why you should try CBD oil.

The post All about CBD Oil: How It Works and Its Potential Benefits appeared first on Chris Kresser.

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Move over, keto crotch. There’s a new fear-mongering anti-keto media blitz forming: keto bloat.

According to the “good scientists” of the Kellogg company food lab, an unprecedented number of young people are walking around with bloated guts and colons packed to the brim with impacted fecal matter, and it’s all because they’ve embraced ketogenic diets and “forsaken” fiber.

If this sounds like nonsense, that’s because it is.

Are millions of keto dieters suffering from bloating and constipation? I can find no evidence of this.

Is fiber necessary to prevent bloating and constipation? It’s complicated. I’ll explain later. But probably not.

Does the ketogenic diet necessarily exclude fiber? Not at all.

Are ketogenic diets as commonly practiced low in fiber? No.

What Is “Bloat” Anyway?

There are two things that people refer to as bloat: constipation and abdominal distension.

Constipation has different components. It’s being unable to make a satisfying bowel movement. It’s also feeling like you have to poop but are unable to. It’s being able to poop only a little bit. It’s struggling on the toilet bowl. Mostly, it’s being unhappy with your performance on the toilet.

Abdominal distension also can be different things. It might be trapped gas. It might be feeling “heavy” or “full.” It might mean your pants don’t fit after eating.

So, “bloating” can be any or all of these. You can pass hard small stools and feel like you’re bloated. You can poop just fine but have a lot of gas and feel like you’re bloated. You can spend hours on the toilet with not much to show for your effort and be bloated. So “Keto bloat” is difficult to pin down. That makes it easy to make claims and hard to disprove.

Let’s see how frequent bloating and constipation occurs in the ketogenic diet literature.

What Does Research Say About Constipation?

In a study of children with epilepsy placed on an olive oil-based ketogenic diet, about 25% of the subjects experienced constipation. So, was ketosis slowing them down? Not exactly. Those who experienced constipation were actually less likely to be in ketosis. Constipation went up as ketone readings went down, and epilepsy symptoms returned. Constipation improved as ketone readings went up and epilepsy symptoms subsided.

In adults with epilepsy on a ketogenic diet, constipation occurred in just 9% of patients. The authors note that this rate is lower than some other ketogenic studies and attribute the difference to “the heavy focus on importance of fiber from nutrient dense (fiber rich) vegetables, nuts, and seeds.” Note that they weren’t getting fiber from pills and powders. They were eating nutrient-dense foods that just so happened to contain fiber.

Another ten-year study compared the classical ketogenic diet, MCT oil-based ketogenic diet, and modified Atkins keto diet. They were all equally effective at reducing epilepsy symptoms in children, but the occurrence of constipation varied greatly. It was most common in the classic keto diet and medium chain triglyceride-based diet, both of which restrict protein. In the modified Atkins diet, which does not restrict protein, constipation was much rarer. Another study on the modified Atkins diet had similar results, with just 2 of 26 subjects reporting constipation.

Constipation does seem to be a common occurrence. However, the majority of keto diet studies are in epileptic populations following very strict clinical Keto diets. The extreme nature of these therapeutic ketogenic diets—extreme protein (7% of calories) and carbohydrate restriction—makes them an imperfect representation of how most people are eating Keto. And in studies of less-extreme, more realistic versions of the diet, such as modified Atkins (which allows more protein) or the version with “heavy focus” on vegetables, nuts, and seeds, constipation occurs at a much lower rate.

What Does Research Say About Bloating?

The only instance of something approximating bloating in the ketogenic diet literature occurred in studies using medium chain triglyceride-based diets. These are ones that use huge amounts of MCT oil to increase production of ketone bodies. It works great for curbing epilepsy symptoms, but it can also cause cramping, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. That’s not bloating per se. It’s literally the closest I could find.

Causes Of Bloating While Keto?

Okay, say you are dealing with constipation or bloating on a keto diet. What could be going on?

Not Enough Food

Constipation is often a consequence of low energy status. Everything that happens in the body requires energy, and if energy levels are low or energy availability is poor, basic functions will suffer. Bowel movements are no exception. The muscles and other tissues responsible for moving things along your digestive tract use energy. If you aren’t providing adequate amounts of energy, you’re depriving your tissues of the ATP they need to work best and sending your body a signal of scarcity which will only depress energy expenditure even more.

Low carb diets in general and keto diets in particular are very good at causing inadvertent calorie reduction. Great for fat loss, but some people take it overboard and go too far. I’m talking 800-1000 calories a day on top of CrossFit. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Water and Mineral Loss

When you go Keto for the first time, you shed tons of water. For every gram of glycogen you lose, you drop 3-4 grams of water. You also lose sodium and potassium with the water, and you need extra magnesium to regulate your sodium and potassium levels.

The water content of stool is what gives it that smooth texture we all desire. If you’re dehydrated, even mildly, you’ll have less water available for your bowel movements and be more likely to suffer from constipation.

Drink a big glass of salty water with lemon juice in the morning and sip on salty broth throughout the day. Zucchini is a great source of potassium, as is avocado.

Also, if you’re going to eat more fiber, you need to increase water intake for it to work.

Too Much or Too Little Fiber

The relationship between fiber and constipation is mixed. Some interventions do seem to help. Psyllium husk and flaxseed have both been shown to improve constipation. Galactooligosaccharides, a class of prebiotic fiber, improve idiopathic constipation. And inulin, another prebiotic fiber, improves bowel function and stool consistency in patients with constipation.

But there’s also evidence that more fiber can make the problem worse. In one 2012 study, patients with idiopathic constipation—constipation without apparent physiological or physical causes—had to remove fiber entirely to get pooping again. Those who kept eating a bit or a lot of it continued to have trouble evacuating. The more fiber they ate, the worse their constipation (and bloating) remained. Another review found mixed evidence; some people get less bloating and constipation with more fiber, others get less bloating and constipation with less fiber.

Personally, my toilet performance is stellar with or without a constant intake of voluminous levels of plant matter. Most days I eat a good amount—Big Ass Salads, broccoli, sautéed greens, berries—but on the days I don’t, I don’t notice any difference. I’m suspicious of the widespread calls for bowel-rending levels of fiber as the universal panacea for all things toilet, and I’m also suspicious of the people who claim fiber is unnecessary or even harmful.

Fiber helps some people and hampers others. There’s no one-size-fits-all with fiber, especially since there are many different types of fiber.

Too Many Sugar Substitutes

I get it. There are some interesting candies out there that cater to the Keto set and use various sugar alcohols—non-alcoholic, low-or-no calorie versions of sugar—artificial sweeteners, and fibers to recreate popular treats. It’s fun to eat an entire chocolate bar that tastes pretty close to the real thing and get just a few net carbs. But that’s a lot of fermentable substrate your gut bugs are more than happy to turn to gas.

If you want the opposite problem, you can always turn to Haribo sugar-free gummy bears.

FODMAP Intolerance

FODMAPs stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols—the carbohydrates in plants that our gut bacteria usually mop up. Most people have gut biomes that can handle FODMAPs; indeed, most people derive beneficial short chain fatty acids from their fermentation. But some people’s gut biomes produce too much fermentation when they encounter FODMAPs. Fermentation begets hydrogen gas, which gathers in the gut and causes great distress. Common complaints of the FODMAP intolerant are bloating, stomach pain, and visits to the toilet that are either unproductive or way too productive—all of which fall into the bloating category.

The myth is that Keto people are eating salami and cream cheese for every meal. The reality is that many people go Primal or Keto and find they’re eating way more vegetables than they ever have before. These are great developments, usually, but if you’re intolerant of FODMAP fibers, you may worsen the bloating.

What Can You Do?

Eat enough protein. Most people can get away with eating 15-25% of their calories from protein and still stay in ketosis. Most people can eat even more protein and still get most of the benefits of fat-adaptation. The keto studies which had the lowest rates of constipation were far more tolerant of higher protein intakes.

Eat FODMAPs unless you’re intolerant. Most people can eat FODMAPs. In most people, FODMAPs improve gut health and reduce constipation and bloating. But if your gut blows up after a few bites of broccoli or asparagus, consult the FODMAPs list and try a quick FODMAP elimination diet.

Make sure you’re truly constipated. Your stool volume and frequency of toilet visits will decline on a normal ketogenic diet because there’s less “waste.” Make sure you’re not misinterpreting that as constipation or bloating. If there’s less poop, there’s less poop. If there’s more poop but it’s just not coming, and you have to go but can’t, that’s when you have an issue.

Experiment with fiber. Fiber clearly has a relationship to bloating and constipation. You just have to figure out what that looks like in your diet.

• If you’re bloated and constipated on a high-plant Keto Diet, eat fewer plants.
• If you’re bloated and constipated on a low-plant Keto Diet, try eating more plants. If that doesn’t help, go zero-plant.
• If you’re bloated and constipated on a zero-plant Keto Diet, try eating more plants. .

We all have to find our sweet spot.

So, to sum up, “keto bloat” is mostly a myth. There’s a glimmer of truth there, but it’s highly exaggerated. Constipation is common on the most restrictive clinical keto diets, while eating fiber from whole plant foods, being less restrictive with protein, and making sure you’re drinking enough water and eating enough calories and electrolytes seems to avoid the worst of it.

What’s been your experience with bloating and constipation? How have you handled it?

References:

Ho KS, Tan CY, Mohd daud MA, Seow-choen F. Stopping or reducing dietary fiber intake reduces constipation and its associated symptoms. World J Gastroenterol. 2012;18(33):4593-6.

Müller-lissner SA, Kamm MA, Scarpignato C, Wald A. Myths and misconceptions about chronic constipation. Am J Gastroenterol. 2005;100(1):232-42.

Guzel O, Uysal U, Arslan N. Efficacy and tolerability of olive oil-based ketogenic diet in children with drug-resistant epilepsy: A single center experience from Turkey. Eur J Paediatr Neurol. 2019;23(1):143-151.

Roehl K, Falco-walter J, Ouyang B, Balabanov A. Modified ketogenic diets in adults with refractory epilepsy: Efficacious improvements in seizure frequency, seizure severity, and quality of life. Epilepsy Behav. 2019;

Liu YM. Medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) ketogenic therapy. Epilepsia. 2008;49 Suppl 8:33-6.

Arnaud MJ. Mild dehydration: a risk factor of constipation?. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2003;57 Suppl 2:S88-95.

Noureddin S, Mohsen J, Payman A. Effects of psyllium vs. placebo on constipation, weight, glycemia, and lipids: A randomized trial in patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic constipation. Complement Ther Med. 2018;40:1-7.

The post Keto Bloat: Separating Fact from Fiction appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Living in today’s world can feel very overwhelming with our daily to-do list that never seems to end. You cross one thing off only to add two more tasks to complete. As a single working mother, I know how hard it can be to take a breath between all the busyness.

“Self-care” is a popular buzzword on social media right now and it’s great that we (women) are having more conversations about taking care of ourselves. I think that what self-care looks like varies, and that there is no right or wrong way to nourish your mind, body, and spirit.

Only you can know what works for you so that you can feel joy, experience self-preservation, and do so in alignment with your truth.

When I became a single working mother, my schedule quickly filled up — so much that I never had the time to do anything other than care for my son, get him to school, clean, run errands, work, schedule clients, email clients, commute, study for my continued-ed exams, pay bills, find a place to live, etc.

There was always something or someone needing my attention — every single waking moment. This left me feeling tired, stressed, and depleted of energy. I didn’t know how much I had left in me before a breakdown.

I just kept going until one day, while making my son’s bed, I threw out my back. I could not walk for two full days. I had to cancel my client sessions, ask for help with my son and with chores around the house. My body was telling me to hit the pause button and focus on taking care of my needs.

And over the course of those two days that I spent on my back, I realized that slowing down was exactly the self-care that I needed and that it was OK to ask for support.

Now that my back is better and that I am back up on my feet, I incorporate a few restorative exercises as a form of self-care and to slow down and destress on days when I feel completely overwhelmed, tired, or stressed.

Today I want to share six exercises that might be helpful for you too. These restorative exercises can help release tension in your body, regulate your central nervous system, improve sleep quality and movement quality, increase blood flow, reduce back pain, and calm the mind.

Furthermore, these exercises can help you shift from the sympathetic nervous system, which activates the fight or flight response, to the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps you to relax, slows down the heart rate, and releases tension in the sphincter muscles of the gastrointestinal tract, which can in turn aid in digestion.

What You’ll Need

• A yoga bolster or foam roller (you can also just roll up a bunch of blankets and cushions)
• A yoga block
• A yoga strap (you can also use a longer resistance band)
• A small rolled up towel

1. Diaphragmatic Breathing

• Sit in a comfortable position with the legs crossed. You can sit on a bolster to support the lower back if it’s more comfortable for you. Take a light object like a half foam cylinder, a yoga block or a book and place it on your sternum.
• Notice if it is pointing up towards the ceiling or straight ahead. If it is pointing up, roll your shoulders forward until the object is pointing straight ahead. This will help position the ribs which will support more functional breathing.
• Place your left hand on your lower rib and your right hand on your lower abdominals.
• Take a deep breath in and breathe into your hands, expanding your torso.
• Take a deep breath out and feel your body fall away from your hands and your abdominal muscles come in towards each other and contract.
• Allow the breath to start and finish from the lower half of your torso.
• Once you feel comfortable with where your breath is starting and finishing you can rest your hands on your thighs and close your eyes or soften your gaze.
• Take 10 deep breaths here, or longer if you desire.

Breathing diaphragmatically will help you to de-stress, support body alignment, and movement quality. As you continue to practice the rest of the restorative exercises in this program, I invite you to take a moment to check in with your breath.

2. Psoas Release

• Place a big, firm yoga bolster or blankets and pillows on the floor and lie down, lining up the end of the bolster with your mid-back (right where your bra strap or heart rate monitor strap would rest).
• Extend your legs on the floor and notice if your back is arched and the ribs are elevated. If the ribs are elevated or you have an arch in your back add more bolstering until your ribs are down.
• Keep your chin tucked in. If it is difficult to keep the chin from tilting up towards the ceiling, you can use additional bolstering under your head.
• Once you’ve found a comfortable position, lower your arms to the floor next to your body.
• Take deep breaths and with each exhale encourage your ribs to drop and the tension in the front of your body to dissipate.

This position will help you to release tension in the psoas muscle which commonly becomes short and tight from sitting and driving. Spend at least 5 minutes here to reap the benefits of this restorative exercise.

3. Psoas Release With Floor Angel

• Place a big, firm yoga bolster or blankets and pillows on the floor and lie down, lining up the end of the bolster with your mid-back (right where your bra strap or heart rate monitor strap would rest).
• Extend your legs on the floor and notice if your back is arched and the ribs are elevated. If the ribs are elevated or you have an arch in your back add more bolstering until your ribs are down.
• Keep your chin tucked in. If it is difficult to keep the chin from tilting up towards the ceiling, you can use additional bolstering under your head.
• Rest the back of your hands on the floor horizontally on either side of you, with your elbows slightly bent and lifted off the floor.
• You can stay here to stretch your chest and shoulders or you can start to slide your arms (like a snow angel) up and down while keeping the back of your hand on the floor and elbow lifted to go a bit further.

This will encourage external rotation in the shoulder, stretch the pectoral muscle and anterior deltoid muscle.

4. Hip Flexor Release (Single and Double Leg Option)

• Lie on your back, bend your knees and place your feet pelvis-width apart with vertical shins.
• Lift your hips up and slide a yoga bolster or yoga block under your tailbone.
• The goal is to let gravity bring your hips out of hip flexion and into hip extension. You want your pelvis to tilt towards your face without turning on your glute muscles or “actively” tilting your pelvis.
• Keep your chin tucked and ribs down while you rest here and take deep breaths.

To go deeper, you can take your hands around one thigh and pull the knee towards your chest while you bring the opposite foot off the floor and extend the knee. Keep your knee straight and your heel off the ground. Hold for about 1 minute and then switch legs.

5. Quad Stretch With Strap

• Lie on your stomach with a rolled-up towel under your sternum so that your pubic bone rests on the floor.
• Keep your hips square to the floor and your pubic bone touching the floor, bend one knee and draw the heel towards the same side hip.
• Only go as far as you can before your hip begins to flex (your pubic bone begins to come off the floor) or you feel a pull in your back.
• Hold for 1 minute and then switch sides.

To go further, you can wrap a yoga strap around your ankle and drape it over the same side shoulder. Hold the strap with both hands and bend the knee. Use the upper body to pull the leg up and go as far as you can while keeping the pubic bone on the floor and your hips square to the floor.

Hold for 1 minute and then switch sides. (If you do not have a yoga strap you can reach back and hold the outside of your ankle with your hand.)

6. Child’s Pose

• Come onto your hands and knees and bring your knees apart and your big toes together.
• Sit your hips back towards your heels as you reach your arms forward. You’ll feel a stretch along the sides of your back, your low back and your glutes.
• Rest your forehead on the floor and rest here for 1 minute.

If this bothers your knees you can place a small rolled up towel underneath of your knees to help keep the knee joint from going into complete flexion. You might also want to try stretching your calves, sometimes tight calf muscles can make this pose uncomfortable.

I like to do these restorative exercises in the evening while watching a show with my son but you can do them whenever you want. I recommend at least 1 minute for each exercise to truly benefit from the release in the muscles. The goal is to relax and to allow gravity to help release tension in your body.

It might not look like big movements but there is a lot of movement happening in your body with each of these restorative exercises.

Take deep breaths and enjoy a good book or a show while you move your body. Yes, even this is movement. Enjoy the sweetness in slowing down.

The post 6 Restorative Exercises to Relieve Stress and Help You Slow Down appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.

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My Primal story starts in 2014. I had a one-year-old baby. I was healthy. I was taking vitamins and supplements and I did exercise. I jogged and lifted weights. I only gained 10 pounds during my pregnancy because of my exercise routine.

The problem was my diet. But I didn’t know that. It all started with my skin and my teeth. I had eczema, red inflamed skin on my face, neck, knees, etc. and I always had cavities every time I went to the dentist. And I had THE best, the Absolute BEST Dental hygiene. I flossed after every meal. I water picked at night. I brushed my teeth 3 times a day. And without fail, every time I went to the dentist there would be a new cavity.

So. I am at the dentist. It’s 2014. He tells me that I have a cavity and he was going to fill it. I was very upset. I said “NO.” I told him not to fill the cavity. I told him I was going to heal it. The dentist is taken aback. He laughed at me.

I went home and Googled “How to heal a Cavity”. And it took me to this oil pulling sight. And it was a domino effect from there. I bought a book called Heal Cavities and Cure Tooth Decay, and I read that book cover to cover. And that book mentioned another book called The Paleo Manifesto, and it also talked about diet and how cavities start from the INSIDE out. So I immediately went out and bought The Paleo Manifesto and read that cover to cover. And that book took me to (you guessed it) The Primal Blueprint. I read that book cover to cover.

I already had a good exercise routine. But those books helped me to clean up my diet which led me to clean up my makeup routine, soap, shampoo, dental routine. It was a complete 180. I went totally green. Also the Primal Blueprint helped me to raise my exercise game and take it from good to Great.

And from there, I gained lean muscle mass. I STOPPED having and getting cavities. My skin cleared up and my eczema completely went away.

After I read Cure Tooth Decay and Heal Cavities, The Paleo Manifesto, and The Primal Blueprint, I STOPPED brushing my teeth so often and so hard. Everything in moderation. I started oil pulling in the morning. I started brushing and flossing my teeth ONLY at night before bed. And I started using mineralized tooth powder. From Primal Life Organics or Raw Dakota Tallow. And just by doing these 2 things, my tooth sensitivity went away immediately. And I started to notice that I could eat hot and cold foods again without any pain. I did this same routine for 6 months and now this is my normal routine. Since I started taking care of my teeth like this, I have NO sensitivity. My enamel that I spent my entire life eroding has come back. I have NOT had a cavity since 2014 and my gums are beautiful and healthy. I no longer dread going to the dentist.

My skin care changed a lot. After reading those books and going Primal/Paleo. I stopped immediately using conventional skin care. I started ONLY using castile soap from head to toe. I started using an acidic toner on my face to bring back the acid mantle that I spent my entire life eroding. I mix up equal parts (1 to 1 ratio) of raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar with the mother and water. And I spray that on my face at night after I wash my face with the castile soap. And I use tallow as my face cream. From Raw Dakota Tallow or Vintage Traditions. And I do use conventional makeup. I have tried healthy, green makeup, but that is expensive and doesn’t do the same job as the regular conventional makeup. But since I started taking care of my skin this way ALL of the redness and eczema went away completely.

So in these pictures you can see me without makeup and the top picture is my clear, healthy skin now and the bottom is the red, inflamed skin from before. And you can see the lean muscle mass in the gray dress as opposed to the portly me on the Ducati before I went Paleo/Primal.

I do lift weights every other day and I do cardio every other day. My cardio is walking with alternating sprints. And I never miss a workout. But I never train super hard. I stand at work all day and I do a lot of slow movement throughout the day.

I do eat organic when I can. But that is not always possible. So I do eat conventional produce and meats. But I eat nose to tail. And I eat a lot of colorful veggies. I stopped eating sugar entirely. Cold turkey. I STOPPED eating all carbs and sugar. I did that for 6 months and then started slowly bringing back carbs, but healthy carbs like sprouted and fermented sourdough breads with European butter. I follow and maintain a Paleo/Mediterranean diet. My family is from Spain so I do eat a lot of ancestral food and I do drink wine. I was always a steak girl but now I eat lots of healthy vegetables with the steak. I eat lots of dark chocolate. But my treat is white chocolate.

Since I went Paleo/Primal (and I ONLY did this to heal a cavity) I am the healthiest I have ever been. I am 41 and I look like I am 26, and I feel like I am 26. This lifestyle, this way of life is really a lifesaver. Looking back now, I can see how the Standard American Diet and health care and personal care (dental and skin) are slowly poisoning the American people and were slowly eroding my health. This journey is NOT easy for some people. It was easy for me. In order to do this you have to be comfortable doing your own research and you have to be comfortable questioning what you have been taught, conditioned to think and you have to be comfortable questioning what you have been told.

I always took a multivitamin. But after reading these books and doing my research I started talking Fermented Cod Liver Oil, and High Vitamin Butter Oil. I take collagen. I take Iodine (Triodine) I take a really good multimineral (Concentrace minerals) I take a good multivitamin, I take Fermented Skate Liver Oil. But NOT all at once and NOT everyday. Every other day. I take a combination of these.

Do what works for you. I am NOT orthodox paleo/primal/Mediterranean. Living a life like this is amazing.

I would NOT recommend this but, it in my experience it can be done. After having appendicitis, and routine (best case scenario) appendectomy you can snow blow your driveway. I had appendicitis and the appendectomy on Tuesday. I went home from the hospital on Tuesday night at 9:30 p.m. I slept till noon on Wednesday and then I got up and started walking around. I had a good high fat, high protein lunch. And then I snow blowed my driveway (I live in Layton, Utah and we get a ton of snow where I live and it had snowed for 2 days straight). I did that because I figured that Grok did NOT have the luxury of being injured and then laying on the couch all day long and watching T.V. I figured that Grok would be up and walking around. At least foraging for food, for his tribe.

I am healthier than I have ever been in my life, and I have the energy to play with my 5-year-old and keep up with him.

I will Never, Ever go back to what I did and thought and believed before going Primal/Paleo. And it really is a domino effect. Once you start down this journey it will simply but take over every aspect of your life.

I want to thank MDA, The Primal Blueprint, Raw Dakota Tallow, The Paleo Manifesto and Cure Cavities and Heal Tooth Decay, as well as myself for my Amazing transformation. I was always skinny, but I am in PERFECT health because of this journey.

Elsha

The post Living a Life Like This Is Amazing appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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“We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.”

George Bernard Shaw

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