Hormonal changes during menopause, aging, and lifestyle factors can contribute to weight gain in women. Dr. Mary Claire Haver, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist, developed the Galveston Diet to address this issue, helping women burn fat and combat menopausal weight gain through anti-inflammatory foods and intermittent fasting.
What is the Galveston Diet?
The Galveston Diet is a weight loss program designed to reverse menopausal weight gain by combining anti-inflammatory foods and intermittent fasting. Instead of restricting calories, the diet emphasizes whole foods and limits processed foods, added sugars, and artificial ingredients. It is a self-paced online program with options for meal delivery and supplements.
The Galveston diet is a weight loss program aimed at middle-age menopausal women. Instead of simple calorie restriction, it emphasizes the importance of when to eat, what foods to eat, and what foods to avoid to reduce inflammation in the body. This eating pattern is ultimately a 16/8 intermittent fasting regimen combined with a high fat, low carb diet and inflammation-fighting foods.
Core Principles of the Galveston Diet
The Galveston Diet combines three main components: intermittent fasting, anti-inflammatory nutrition, and "Fuel Refocus."
1. Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting involves eating all daily calories within a specific window, followed by a fasting window. The recommended method is the 16:8 approach, where you fast for 16 hours and eat within an 8-hour window. During the fasting window, you can consume zero-calorie beverages like water, unsweetened tea, and coffee.
Read also: Peri/Menopause Salad Recipe
Intermittent fasting leads to weight loss because of calorie restriction. By limiting the time you’re allowed to eat, people tend to eat fewer calories overall, creating a calorie deficit that promotes weight loss. Intermittent fasting has been linked to reduced inflammation, improved insulin resistance, and decreased heart disease risk factors.
2. Anti-Inflammatory Nutrition
The Galveston Diet prioritizes anti-inflammatory whole foods. It encourages the intake of foods like vegetables and fruits, which are rich in plant compounds that help fight inflammation. Acute inflammation is important for fighting infection and healing wounds. However, low grade chronic inflammation is associated with conditions like obesity, heart disease, cancer, and arthritis.
3. Fuel Refocus
The Galveston Diet is ultimately a high fat, low carb diet. It resembles the standard keto diet in its macronutrient distribution, as most daily calories come from fat. The diet advocates getting about 70% of daily calories from fats, 20% from protein, and 10% from carbs, shifting the body's preferred energy source from carbs to fat. The result is a very low carb diet consumed within an 8-hour eating window that includes significant amounts of anti-inflammatory foods.
What Can You Eat on the Galveston Diet?
The Galveston diet generally encourages high fat, low carb, antioxidant-rich, and anti-inflammatory foods. You’re also meant to drink tea and eat fermented foods that are rich in probiotics, while you should avoid most processed foods, added sugar, and alcohol.
Foods to Eat
- Fats: olive oil, coconut oil, MCT oil, butter, ghee, avocado oil, and sesame oil
- Proteins: lean ground beef, chicken, turkey, eggs, lean pork, salmon, trout, tuna, and shellfish
- Fruits: avocado, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries
- Leafy greens: spinach, kale, lettuce, dill, and mustard greens
- Other vegetables: cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, onion, and carrots
- Nuts: cashews, pistachios, almonds, and peanuts
- Seeds: pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, flax, and chia seeds
- Dairy: heavy cream, cheese, sour cream, plain greek yogurt, and nut milk
- Tea: black, green, oolong, and chamomile teas
- Fresh herbs: ginger, garlic, parsley, thyme, and basil
Foods to Limit or Avoid
- Sweeteners: added sugar and artificial sweeteners
- Food additives: artificial additives (flavors, colors, and preservatives)
- Alcohol: beer, wine, and spirits
- Processed foods: refined grains, fried foods, and processed meats
- Vegetable oils high in omega-6 fats: soybean, sunflower, safflower, and corn oil
- Sugar-sweetened beverages: sweet tea, colas, soft drinks, and juices
Potential Benefits of the Galveston Diet
Although the Galveston diet itself has yet to be researched specifically, its main components - intermittent fasting and low carb dieting - have been extensively studied for their weight loss effects.
Read also: Galveston Diet Approved Lunch Options
Weight Loss
During menopause, women become more prone to abdominal weight gain because hormonal shifts cause fat stores to relocate to the body’s central parts. A 3-month study in 40 people showed that a 16/8 intermittent fasting diet reduced belly fat and cut waist size by an average of 2.1 inches (5.3 cm). A 40-week study in 36 men with obesity found that the intermittent fasting group experienced 53% more weight loss than the calorie-restricted group and maintained weight loss more successfully over the following 6 months.
Anti-Inflammatory Effects
Intermittent fasting reduces concentrations of inflammatory markers and protects blood vessels from plaque buildup. Low carb diets may also help reduce inflammation and combat inflammatory conditions like fatty liver disease, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis.
Disease Risk Reduction
Intermittent fasting and low carb diets have been shown to protect against various lifestyle illnesses, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and insulin resistance. They’re also associated with a reduction in visceral fat, fasting insulin, and insulin resistance, which are risk factors for type 2 diabetes.
Healthy Blood Sugar Management
In one online intervention among adults with type 2 diabetes, 55% more people placed on a very low carb keto diet showed improved blood sugar management than those following a diet based on the diabetes plate method.
Downsides of the Galveston Diet
Despite its potential benefits, the Galveston diet has some drawbacks.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
Potentially Low in Fiber
Very low carb diets tend to be low in dietary fiber, which is important for regular bowel movements, heart health, and gut health. To mitigate this, it’s important to include lower carb, fiber-rich foods like nonstarchy vegetables, avocados, and berries.
Restrictive Nature
People who find extremely low carb diets restrictive may be unable to follow the Galveston diet long term.
Lack of Research
The Galveston diet has not been studied specifically, and there is a lack of evidence to support its long-term health benefits or safety.
Comparing the Galveston Diet to Other Diets
Galveston Diet vs. Mediterranean Diet
The Galveston Diet is similar to the Mediterranean diet, as both focus on reducing added sugars, processed foods, and refined grains. However, the Galveston Diet emphasizes lean protein, whereas the Mediterranean diet emphasizes legumes, whole grains, and nuts and seeds as healthy fats over lean protein. The Galveston Diet is slightly more restrictive, allowing only low-glycemic fruits like berries and being gluten-free, compared to the Mediterranean diet.
Galveston Diet vs. Keto Diet
Both the Galveston diet and keto diet are high fat and low carb. However, the Galveston diet incorporates intermittent fasting and emphasizes anti-inflammatory foods, differentiating it from the traditional keto diet.
Potential Benefits
Some studies have shown that its components, including intermittent fasting and low carb dieting, are effective for weight loss. Apart from the weight loss, the Galveston diet may be associated with some health benefits, including lower levels of inflammation.
Potential Downsides
For all its potential health benefits, the Galveston diet is not without drawbacks. Potentially low in fiber, very low carb diets tend to be low in dietary fiber. Most dietary fiber comes from high carb foods like fruits, whole grains, beans, and vegetables. Thus, drastic carb cutting affects your fiber intake. Fiber is important for regular bowel movements, heart health, and gut health. Other downsides include that people who find extremely low carb diets restrictive may be unable to follow the Galveston diet long term. As a precaution, if you have a medical condition or history of an eating disorder, speak with a healthcare professional before following any restrictive or extremely high fat diet like this one.
Galveston Diet Program Details and Costs
The Galveston diet signature program is an online program with no set time period.
Program Levels
- Signature: This program costs about $59 and includes a series of educational sessions, videos, other resources, shopping lists, 5 weeks of meal planning and recipes, lifetime access to all online material, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Gold: This level costs around $124 and includes everything from the Signature package, plus a guide, the Move Mini-Course, a daily recharge journal, and a recipe collection.
- **Platinum.
Success Stories and Testimonials
- Testimonial 1: “This whole concept has changed my way of thinking about food. I’m excited that I have finally found something that is going to help me with my life long weight struggle.
- Testimonial 2: “After only 14 days, I had lost six stubborn pounds, my bloating was gone and I felt so much better. Now 60 pounds slimmer, with almost no menopause symptoms, my resting heart rate has lowered by 20 beats per minute and I have so much stamina.
- Testimonial 3: “I have lost countless inches and there have been many non-scale benefits. Dr. Haver, thank you for putting the effort into teaching us the “why”!
- Diana Johnson’s Experience: Sometime in late 2021, Diana Johnson was having a bad time. She was experiencing hot flashes and knee and hip pain from carrying more weight than usual in her midsection. Johnson’s primary care physician told her she was experiencing symptoms of menopause. Johnson adopted the Galveston diet. Online, she worked with a Galveston diet coach who helped her through the program. About a month into the regimen, Johnson began seeing results. She dropped 25 pounds and hopes to lose another 40 or so. “In general, I just feel so much better,” she says.
Expert Opinions
- “Midbody weight gain is almost universal among menopausal women,” Dr. Santoro said.
- “There is no evidence that the Galveston diet is some special kind of magic” for midlife women,” Santoro says. “The diet is an example of a hunch-based marketing tool,” said Dr.
- The Galveston Diet is a potentially anti-inflammatory diet because the foods on the main food list are foods that aim to lower inflammation, from healthy fats like avocado to fruits like blueberries.
- However, if costs are too high, I suggest buying less expensive protein, trimming the fat, and practicing portion control. Overall, this diet review is that it can help with healthy weight maintenance if you adhere to the plan, and may be a good eating plan for metabolism changes during menopause because of that.
- "(This diet) was designed with women in mind, there is no reason a man couldn’t follow it too," Richter says. "In fact, men can also benefit from the weight management, blood sugar and heart health benefits of this diet.”
Considerations Before Starting the Galveston Diet
Before starting the Galveston Diet, consider the following:
- Consult a healthcare professional: If you have a medical condition or a history of eating disorders, speak with a healthcare professional before starting the diet.
- Fiber intake: Ensure you consume enough fiber-rich foods or consider fiber supplementation to maintain regular bowel movements and support overall health.
- Sustainability: Evaluate whether the restrictive nature of the diet aligns with your lifestyle and long-term goals.
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