Tagged: nutrition

Fast Like a Girl

Fast Like a Girl: A Woman’s Guide to Using the Healing Power of Fasting to Burn Fat, Boost Energy, and Balance Hormones by Dr. Mindy Pelz, 3/5

It is refreshing to read a diet book written specifically for women. This is the clearest layout of the female hormone cycle I’ve ever encountered, accompanied by easily understandable nutritional guidelines for each stage–a welcome break from the one-size-fits-all approach of most programs. The author makes an impassioned and compelling argument for the “miraculous” healing power of fasting but, unfortunately, relies heavily on anecdotal evidence from her own practice. Like many questionable health gurus, Pelz has a doctorate in chiropractics and her main source of credibility seems to be a few celebrity clients and the following she has built by posting hundreds of YouTube videos on topics for which she has zero formal education. Much of what she states without reservation seems to reside in that twilight zone of science where it may be correct, but has yet to be satisfactorily proven.

Now, I am not a blind believer in mainstream medicine–I feel there is an air of undeserved infallibility about it, closed-mindedness, and conflicts of interest that slow progress unnecessarily. However, even a little research into Dr. Mindy and her fasting regimen rings warning bells. She has built an entire program and community around her ideas, yet there is not a single Doctor of Medicine on her 24-person team. Dietician Abby Langer has written an excellent review of Fast Like a Girl that points out the cult-like aspects of Pelz’s program and is able to put her finger on some of the over-confident language in this book that made me uncomfortable without quite knowing why. Curious, I did just a little further research on the much-vaunted concept of fast-induced autophagy, finding that Pelz not only fails to mention the potential negative effects of autophagy, but also bases her 17-72 hour fast guidelines on a study of baby mice that cannot be extrapolated to human subjects and neither supports her recommendation, nor even the actual statement in the book to which the endnote is appended (32).

Another issue I have with Pelz is her attempt to discredit calorie-restriction diets by employing the straw man fallacy (5). As someone who has personally achieved substantial, long-term, transformative weight loss through calorie counting, I found her depiction of calorie-restriction diets to be either ignorant or downright deceptive (depending on how generous you want to be about her motives). She cites a study from the 1960s called the “Minnesota Starvation Experiment” in an attempt to discount an approach to weight loss that is completely reasonable, commonsense, accessible, and has worked for many, many people. I achieved metabolic health, according to her own definition, through calorie counting and exercise. Sure, there are many times I have slept in and had a very late breakfast…does the fact that I went 15 hours between dinner and breakfast mean that I fasted? According to Pelz, yes, and I can expect health miracles if I continue do this a lot. According to commonsense, no!

The author’s attempt to demonize calorie-restriction diets becomes even more ridiculous when you get past the fasting section of the book and reach her actual “30-Day Fasting Reset,” which involves two diet plans (ketobiotic and hormone feasting), along with a bunch of complicated and gross-sounding recipes. It feels like a total bait-and-switch to be told that, in addition to fasting, one should also adhere to a diet that is much like any other diet that people routinely fail to stick with. We’re told to avoid bad oils, refined flours and sugar, toxic chemical ingredients, and alcohol, while adding in specific healthy foods (all organic, non-GMO, hormone-free, obviously). Duh! How is this different from other diets? How is someone who fails at traditional diets going to have success trying to eliminate processed foods, sweetener in your coffee, breads, pastas, crackers, and desserts? How is this better than counting calories and experiencing for yourself the value of choosing nutrient dense foods over empty calories? I honestly cannot comprehend how anyone who is struggling with weight loss would be able to stick with this diet plan over others. So, what we are left with is some very cliched diet recommendations, six different fasts (all under-researched), and some information about what types of foods might support female hormones at different times of the month (no citations given).

One might be justified for wondering why I would give a book that I perceive to have so many issues a decent, 3/5 rating. The reason is this: I respect the author’s exploration at the cutting edge of nutrition and medicine, and appreciate her focus on the female experience. Just because the scientific research on fasting doesn’t yet justify specific guidelines doesn’t mean it’s not a concept of value, worth experimenting with (especially for people who have tried literally everything else).

Why I read it: my dad sent me a podcast featuring Dr. Mindy, but I would rather read a book than listen to a podcast any day.

Roar

Roar: How to Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Female Physiology for Optimum Performance, Great Health, and a Strong, Lean Body for Life by Stacy T. Sims, PhD, 3/5

It is so refreshing to read a book written specifically for female athletes that pragmatically and constructively addresses the comparative strengths and weaknesses of our sex. I am often the only woman on our martial arts fight team and it is tempting to think of myself simply as a smaller, weaker man, cursed with monthly inconsistency in performance. Sims makes it clear that things are not that simple and offers helpful ideas for navigating the ups and downs of the menstrual cycle, menopause, and pregnancy, in addition to the basics of general strength and conditioning, nutrition, hydration and recovery for women. I found the section on different types of birth control and their effects on athletic performance to be particularly interesting. I was also fascinated to find out that I should be eating protein as a recovery snack instead of carbs.

While I definitely plan to refer to this book in future, I do wish it contained specific footnotes for many of its claims instead of general endnotes. Sims’ recommendations for PMS supplements were particularly unsupported by any obvious science or reasoning, which did not inspire confidence. I also wish the advice was more easily scalable; while Sims gives many examples of specific guidelines for specific clients, there is obviously considerable guesswork that would be involved in applying her principles to one’s own situation. This is a definite obstacle to the practical application of her ideas, especially for a perfectionist like myself. Of course, no book can be a substitute for one-on-one coaching, so perhaps I am asking too much. But while I’m at it, I would love to ask for a book like this to be written specifically for female MMA athletes!

Why I read it: a recommendation from my sister.

Sugar and Salt–Foods or Poison?

sugar and salt axel emil gibson will a kistler company 1913Sugar and Salt–Foods or Poison? by Axel Emil Gibson, 3/5

As a sugar addict in a state of near-constant relapse, I have first-hand experience with the bizarre, drug-like power of sugar and the rarely-acknowledged withdrawal symptoms that accompany any serious attempt to resist it. Over-dramatic as this may sound, it’s positively restrained compared to Dr. Axel Emil Gibson’s opinion on the topic:

The dominating ingredient in most of our dishes, sugar perverts our taste, blinds our instincts, bewilders our gastric consciousness, and leaves us guidelessly and aimlessly adrift in the rapids and breakers of morbid and despotic cravings, not infrequently decoying the individual into body-and-mind-destroying excesses (13).

Though a proponent of naturally-occurring sugars in fruits and vegetables, Dr. Gibson fervently denounces “free sweets” (extracted or concentrated sugar) and has no qualm about addressing the metaphysical and moral implications of one’s nutritional choices. Written in 1913, this eyebrow-raising rhetoric, accompanied by old-fashioned science, makes it tempting to dismiss the book as outdated and of historic rather than practical value. After all, if current, more-enlightened times see numerous fad diets fueling a multi-billion dollar weight loss industry, what crazier, more ignorant, unscientific advice might this doctor from over 100 years ago recommend? The answer is extremely embarrassing. Gibson’s dietary recommendations are simple, commonsense, and inarguable: he preaches moderation and “[nature’s] own faultless cuisine, where the sun does the cooking and the earth the seasoning” (26).  And yet, it is just in recent years that science and popular culture have started to catch up with this hundred-year-old wisdom, after spending decades hardheadedly demonizing fat. To me, this supports the “sugar conspiracy,” which is a rabbit hole well-worth traveling down since the “evidence” against it actually seems to argue for it instead. Just read a summary of Science magazine’s article claiming to prove there is no “sugar conspiracy,” or this Verge article on the topic. Both focus on salvaging the scientific community’s credibility and denying the conspiracy, while at the same time verifying and attempting to excuse the sugar industry’s underhanded dealings.

Why I read it: The title caught my eye in an antique store and for $5, I couldn’t resist discovering 100-year-old opinions on a still-controversial topic.