IS your healthy diet a FAD?
I live in LA. Home of avocado toast, gluten-free bakeries, and the infamous “chagaccino” (coffee-like drink but made with medicinal chaga mushrooms instead. I am not making this up). The crunchy community is big in LA, but it’s also big in other places, as well as in social media.
Pilates as a religion
The influencer that was raw-vegan 3 years ago is now a carnivore
Being gluten-free as a badge of honor.
And a bloated tummy at the end of the night is a must if you ate raw veggies that day.
You would often hear me preach about the bounties of a grain-free lifestyle, or the AIP diet. Maybe you think I’m too much of a crunchy girl, but then you see my instagram stories and i’m eating delicious homemade pizza made by my boyfriend, and a whole-milk capp the next morning.
Are you confused as to what you should eat?
I thought so.
Let’s clear the air a bit:
You’ve probably heard about or follow one of these lifestyles:
Gluten-Free
Dairy-Free
AIP
Paleo
Vegan
Carnivore
Low Carb
Keto
Flexitarian
Which are fads and which are legit?
The answer is that it is complex. Anthropologists and most nutritional experts would agree that we are omnivores, meaning we, as humans, are meant to eat a variety of different food groups: from animal protein, to vegetables, to dairy, seeds, and fruits.
A healthy diet is a diet that is sustainable over time, has variety, and through that variety you consume all the nutrients you need for your body to function: vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, and fatty acids. Naturally, the more foods we eat, the more chances we have of meeting daily requirements for those nutrients. The more you restrict, the less opportunities you will have to meet such requirements.
This sounds pretty straightforward, correct? It seems like we are meant to eat everything— who would’ve thought?!
The problem with people who say eat “everything” is that oftentimes they are not meeting their nutrient requirements because they are eating ultra-processed foods instead of whole foods. Ultra-processed foods are savory or sugary snacks, the donuts and croissants for breakfast, the high-fat chips at lunch, and high sugar beverages at dinner. Basically, anything that comes in a package and can go through long periods of times without getting spoiled or being refrigerated.
Have you heard of the saying “Every time you eat or drink, you are either feeding disease or fighting it.”?
When we consume ultra-processed foods (or as I like to call them, ‘food-like products’) not only can they harm our bodies by creating inflammation or imbalancing our glucose levels. Here’s another side that I don’t hear many experts talk about: when we consume products that do nothing for our health, there is then less space for the good stuff, the foods that contain antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, etc., for our body to properly function.
The result? A less-than-optimal body if you’re lucky. For the not-so-lucky ones out there, the result is illness or disease.
Orthorexia, which can be described as the obsession of eating healthy foods, is at blame for most of the fad diets and lifestyles that are part of the crunchy community. But in many cases, a lot of the people who are seeking Whole30, Paleo, Carnivore, etc, do so because they are trying to look for balance and health. The balance and health they lost when they thought they “ate everything”, but in reality weren't truly healthy.
Oftentimes diet protocols that eliminate certain food groups can be very healing. But what people do not realize is that the biggest change and what makes the most difference between an omnivore who eats processed foods vs. a Paleo enthusiast, is not so much the fact that the Paleo Enthusiast does not eat wheat anymore, but more so the fact that this person eliminated ultra processed foods WHILE adding healthy, nutrient-dense food into their lifestyle.
But Beware:
Even when an elimination protocol can be necessary to repair our health, staying in an elimination phase can make us less resilient to other foods long-term. This is when a healing protocol becomes a fad.
Healing Protocols, LEGIT or FAD?
Short Answer: if you’re looking to lose weight, all these protocols are going to be a fad for you. If you seeking for true health and what works for you, some protocols may be worth considering:
Keto: legit if you suffer from epilepsy.
AIP: legit if you have or suspect of having an autoimmune disease.
Whole30: legit if you want to lower inflammation, challenge yourself for 30 days, and learn from it.
FODMAP diet: I personally do not believe it is all that necessary to heal your gut from IBS. This is what I would do, instead.
Paleo: legit. Period. Just don’t obsess over it.
Carnivore: I wouldn’t recommend it for women.
Intermittent Fasting: I wouldn’t recommend it for women.
Veganism: a fad when done so for health reasons. A lifestyle if it aligns with your spiritual or moral values. I do not recommend it from a health-standpoint.
Low Carb: I do not recommend it unless there is severe insulin resistance and it is done for a short period of time.
Gluten-Free: not necessary to follow if you aren’t Celiac or don’t have another type of autoimmune disease. Though it is important to be mindful of gluten consumption.
Dairy-Free: not necessary unless you are lactose intolerant. If you are sensitive to dairy but not lactose intolerant, your body can tolerate it better after going through a gut-healing protocol.
In conclusion, eating real, unprocessed foods will always be the most sustainable way to stay healthy, but there may be instances where elimination protocols are necessary to restore balance in your body. A healing protocol becomes a fad when it is done without intention, with no specific time frame, and/or when you are just following the crowd instead of listening to your body’s needs.
If you are not lactose intolerant, save the extra $$ and get your coffee with whole milk. You’ll be fine.
Did I miss any diet? Have any questions? Excited to answer them all below!
-Mariu Cabral, NTP + Certified AIP Coach.