In a world saturated with diets promising quick fixes and often preying on the vulnerabilities of individuals, especially women in middle age, it's crucial to approach nutrition plans with a critical eye. As a dietitian with over two decades of experience, I advocate for sustainable, healthy habits over restrictive diets. Today, let's delve into a review of The Galveston Diet by Mary Claire Haver, examining its principles and assessing its potential impact.
Understanding the Landscape of Diet Culture
Before diving into the specifics of the Galveston Diet, it's essential to acknowledge the broader context of diet culture. The diet industry frequently promotes the idea that a specific diet is the only way to lose weight, or that it’s something of a holy grail for weight loss. This messaging can be misleading and harmful, as it often overlooks the complex and multifactorial nature of weight management.
Many diets are restrictive and focus on minutiae instead of on real healthy habits that can lead to weight loss. I believe in supporting intentional weight loss if someone wants it, but there are situations where it’s not appropriate - like, if it’s going to cause physical and/or emotional harm.
When somebody says their nutrition plan ‘isn’t a diet, it’s a lifestyle,’ they’re almost always trying to sell you a diet. I also want to caution you about any weight loss plan that’s touted as being ‘easy.’ Why we weigh what we weigh is often very complex and multifactorial. Nature dictates that bodies change throughout the life cycle.
The Allure of "Easy" Weight Loss
The promise of effortless weight loss, often touted by diet programs, can be tempting. However, it's crucial to recognize that sustainable weight management requires effort, consistency, and a focus on overall well-being. There are, however, a lot of people (including licensed physicians) who are selling diet programs and books aimed at helping menopausal women lose weight. As a dietitian, I take major issue with the messaging that a specific diet is the only way for anyone to lose weight, or that it’s something of a holy grail for weight loss. It’s not.
Read also: Comprehensive Abby House of Keto Analysis
The Galveston Diet: An Overview
The Galveston Diet, created by Dr. Mary Claire Haver, is a nutrition program specifically marketed toward women experiencing menopause. Like Mindy Pelz’s Fast Like a Girl, it combines elements of intermittent fasting with a focus on anti-inflammatory foods. The diet aims to address hormonal changes and inflammation that can contribute to weight gain during menopause.
Key Components of the Galveston Diet
While the specific details of the Galveston Diet program may vary, it generally includes the following components:
- Intermittent Fasting: This involves cycling between periods of eating and voluntary fasting on a regular schedule.
- Anti-Inflammatory Foods: The diet emphasizes consuming foods believed to reduce inflammation in the body, such as fatty fish, olive oil, nuts, and vegetables.
- Macronutrient Balance: The Galveston Diet likely provides guidelines for macronutrient intake, focusing on protein, carbohydrates, and fats.
A Critical Look at the Galveston Diet
While the Galveston Diet may offer some potential benefits, it's essential to approach it with a critical eye. Here's a closer look at some key considerations:
Intermittent Fasting: Potential Benefits and Drawbacks
While fasting can result in weight loss, it’s merely a method of cutting calories. Going for extended periods without food has no health benefits on its own; improvements in metabolic health may be a result of weight loss due to fasting, not fasting itself.
First of all, for a lot of women, a low-carb diet is tough to sustain simply because it’s restrictive. Combining it with a fasting regimen is even more complicated, and I believe lowers the probability for long-term adherence. Above all else, it seems excessive and punishing to use two methods of food restriction to meet a weight loss goal. Some women can’t fast, and some don’t want to.
Read also: Explore Abby Johnson's journey
Anti-Inflammatory Foods: A Generally Healthy Approach
The emphasis on anti-inflammatory foods is generally a positive aspect of the Galveston Diet. Consuming a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats can support overall health and well-being. Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: most of us don’t eat enough fruits or vegetables. The recommended number of vegetables isn’t high - 7 to 10 servings a day, which I put in terms of handfuls - at least two large at both lunch and supper.
Macronutrient Balance: Individual Needs Vary
Macronutrient recommendations should be tailored to individual needs and preferences. While the Galveston Diet may provide general guidelines, it's essential to consider factors such as activity level, health conditions, and personal preferences. Dietitians like me do a dance between needing to give people guidelines, and helping them understand that those are just that - guidelines - which will probably not be met at every single meal. We all sometimes eat meals that are heavy on one macronutrient and light on the others. It’s totally normal!
Addressing Menopause Myths
It’s no secret that women in middle age are the new target of the wellness and diet industries, and as a dietitian, I’ve had just about enough of it. No more shady menopause diets! I’m consistently hearing a lot of myths about menopause and women’s bodies that are being told in order to sell products and services.
Menopause Myth #1: menopause is a hormone deficiency. A ‘deficiency’ of anything in our bodies tends to mean that we require treatment - usually replacement or supplementation - of whatever it is we’re deficient in. It implies that menopause is a disease or an abnormal state, which is inaccurate. Do pre-pubescent girls have a hormone deficiency, too? How about pregnant women? The framing of this natural period of transition as a disease of oestrogen deficiency that can be eased only by replacing the missing hormones fuels negative attitudes to menopause and exacerbates stigma. MISINFORMATION DOES NOT EMPOWER WOMEN.
The Importance of Personalized Nutrition
The management of our bodies is up to each of us, and should include a two-sided discussion with our healthcare providers. As a dietitian of 24 years, I believe in supporting intentional weight loss if someone wants it. There are situations where it’s not appropriate - like, if it’s going to cause physical and/or emotional harm. The reality is that most of us have wanted to lose weight at some point in our lives, and as we get older, it seems like it’s a tougher goal to accomplish. So many diets are restrictive, and most of them focus on minutia instead of on real healthy habits that can lead to weight loss. I don’t want someone to have to keep coming back to me - my job is to educate them, ensure that they clean up their sh*t around food, eating, and their bodies, and then let them ride off into the sunset. If you focus on the wrong thing, and you don’t do the basic work, you’ll continue to be dependent on diets.
Read also: Health Battles and Controversies: Abby Lee Miller's Weight Loss
Building Healthy Habits for the Long Term
In my experience, focusing on healthy habit building versus weight loss as the ultimate goal, is the way to finding your comfortable weight and living your best life. We do this by starting at the beginning, learning and re-learning basic habits and skills that will stick for life. By far, the biggest weight loss mistake I see with people who want to lose weight is not doing the work to clean out their closet. We’ve been trained by the diet industry to just choose a diet plan and start it when we want to lose weight. As a lot of you know, these promises rarely come true. We go on whatever diet plan is popular, and we might lose weight, but whatever we’re doing is unsustainable. That’s because most of us can’t just hop on an eating plan for weight loss and be successful for the long-term without doing the work behind the scenes.
Our core beliefs around these things affect a lot of the decisions we make about how we treat ourselves, the food choices we make, and our desire to look a certain way. When we don’t do this work, all of this stuff we haven’t worked on is still there, like an app refreshing in the background (and using up our battery). This work can be painful and exhausting. It more often than not entails going back to your childhood and really taking a hard look at what you were told about food and bodies. I sometimes have to refer people to counselling for help with it. This work is an essential stepping stone for healthy habits and a more balanced way of looking at food and your body. It frees up space in your brain to set realistic goals and not have harmful beliefs and other peoples’ expectations distract you.
One of the most common issues I see with clients is that they load up their plates at meals, which leads to overeating, all because they don’t want to be hungry later on. For so long, they’ve depended on external cues like meal plans and calorie budgets. Nobody wants to be hungry an hour after they eat, and if you’re eating a balanced meal with adequate food, this shouldn’t be happening. I’m talking about people overshooting their mark because they’re afraid that they’ll be hungry in 3 or 4 hours and they won’t be ‘allowed’ to snack. These fears mean that they automatically fill their plate with food without checking their hunger levels first. Once the food is in front of them, they eat it all. If they finish their meal and they need more food, that’s okay! Some days they may be hungrier than others, that’s how our bodies work.
How hungry are they before they plate their food? How hungry are they as they eat? Are they satiated mid-meal? Near the end-point? At the end of the meal, do they feel satiated? Are they satisfied? Ideally, meals will have both of these things. They’ll then realize that they may need more protein/vegetables/whatever to ‘follow the rules’ that they’ve been given, so they add more food on top of what they intended on eating. What is normal eating? I explain here.
The most important thing is the balance of food on our plate and that the portion we serve ourselves is congruent with our hunger. One thing all of these weight loss mistakes have in common is that they happen when we don’t understand and/or don’t listen to our bodies. What I’m describing instead is a process to find your comfortable weight and stay there. This process isn’t linear, and it takes time. In fact, any diet that tells you how ‘simple’ it makes weight loss, is already shaming you for failing. If you’re interested in working on any or all of these things, a therapist or dietitian who specializes in this area can help you.