Content warning: This post will be discussing my journey through disordered eating. If the subjects of Anorexia, Orthorexia, and Bulimia are not conducive to your journey – feel free to click away. I understand.

South Beach, Atkins, DASH, Keto – juice cleanses. These words strike up a very clear image. Diets and thin waists. These are not new ideas. If you grew up in the 90s-mid 2000s, you may have suffered through one of the big fad diets or diet programs like Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig.

Unfortunately, if you were anything like me, you had a parent making you feel bad from the time you hit puberty. And this may have caused an eating disorder.

Dieting fads are nothing new. In 1928, an anthropologist tried to get people to follow the “Friendly Artic diet” or the “Holiday Diet,” which followed the high-fat eating habits of the Inuit people of the Arctic. Now, as of 2015, indigenous peoples of the Artic have adapted to eating this type of diet – as a normal person is not adapted, it causes high cholesterol and triglyceride levels. (Citation)

Similar to the “Pray Your Weight Away” Reverend Shedd, the late Gwen Shamblin Lara lead the Remnant Church, which allegedly is a weight loss cult based on her “Weigh Down Workshops.” This is where you replace a “vice” (AKA eating) with a “virtue” (AKA praying). This is a very basic psychological trick of replacing a bad habit with a good habit (switching your favorite soda with water, or water with flavoring to get you to drink more water).

If you are interested in learning more about the Remnant Fellowship Church, Weigh Down Workshop – I recommend watching The Way Down on HBO. Though if you do not have HBO, Fundie Fridays on Youtube has a great video on Gwen Shamblin Lara here.

“Weight Watchers works!” Founded in 1963, the “point-based” Weight Watchers system can lead to disordered eating as they are not a quite balanced system. A 2 oz slice of pork in 5 points, the same as 1 cup (8 oz) of Classic Coca-Cola. But Diet Coke (8 oz) has 0 points – the same as 1 cup (8 oz) of lettuce.

Using the Pork to Coca-Cola example:

2 oz of pork has the following:

Calories	154
Total Fat	9.66g
Cholesterol	51mg
Sodium	218mg
Carbs	0
Sugar	0
Protein	15.5g

While 8 oz of Coca-Cola has the following:

Calories	91
Fat	.05g
Cholesterol	0
Sodium	10mg
Carbs	23.418g
Sugar	22.03g
Protein	.17g

As seen above, while 2 oz of pork has more calories, with those calories comes more nutrients and fewer carbs and sugar. It also has fewer carbohydrates. This shows that Weight Watchers is effective using a point system doesn’t mean you are getting the nutrition you need.

Let’s talk about cabbage soup. This is a favorite of my adopted dad’s. It swept through my family like the Black Death. This soup was typically water and tomato-based, with lots of vegs – and lots and lots of cabbage. It made me hate cabbage. Magazine Marie Claire says this panacea of weight loss can have you lose up to 10 pounds – in 7 days! Please don’t try to lose 10 pounds in 7 days, if you lose that amount of weight in a week, there is something seriously wrong and you need to go to the doctor.

The Liquid Diet/Optifast. I hate the liquid diet. It is a slippery slope back into bad eating habits. Everyone loves Oprah, right? At least she was massively popular in 1988 when she introduced the Liquid Diet then. She wheeled on 67 pounds of fat on stage in a wagon. You can see a brief interview about this moment here. There is a huge list of things you can and cannot do while on this diet; such as: having surgery, getting pregnant, or donating blood.

Some common side effects include fatigue, nausea, constipation, and/or diarrhea. And less common side effects include hair loss, brittle nails, and menstrual changes. Menstrual changes also occur in people with eating disorders – particularly anorexia nervosa. If you want a whole list of horrible side effects of this diet, you can find a PDF here.

Eat Fresh. In the 2000s, Subway found an excellent propaganda puppet in Jared Fogle. He had lost a whopping 245 pounds by eating Subway! That’s amazing! In reality, there is nothing balanced about sodium-drenched cold cuts, cheese, and bread. Especially after all the sauces. And I get it. There is something about that Subway Vinaigrette and the Sweet Onion Teriyaki sauce. It’s delicious.

Remember how I mentioned you really shouldn’t go on a liquid diet because it can cause a lot of issues and possibly lead to disordered eating? The 2000s was well known for The Master Cleanse.

It is straight-up water, lemon, cayenne pepper, and some maple syrup. It’s spicy lemonade. And Queen Bey herself stated it helped her lose weight for her role in Dreamgirls. You can read more about Diana Nguyen’s journey on the Master Cleanse here.

What kind of shots do you like? I don’t drink anymore, but I can safely say back in 2010, I was indeed doing the Apple Cider Vinegar diet. This was in the middle of my worst battle with Anorexia. I would do anything that would “keep me fuller, longer” since I would be able to go long times without food. It’s a good thing I like vinegar, otherwise, I would have hated this. It’s also probably why I was such a champ at downing shots later in life. The burn didn’t hurt. Studies state that there is no benefit to ACV, some say there might be. If you want an in-depth account, Kristin Salaky at Insider tried it.

ACV can cause damage to your teeth, hurt your throat or upset your stomach. This is all common sense. It can also make your urine more acidic and could cause you to feel pain when urinating.

Humans like consuming liquids. 2012 was the revenge of the liquid diet. This was also the Rise of the Green Juice – which wasn’t so bad. Juicing made a comeback with companies like Juice Press. And they are still relatively popular as far as diets go. Again, liquid diets are not the best way to go about changing your diet, though having them with food could add extra nutrients.

Blogilates’ Cassey Ho. Miley Cyrus. Megan Fox. All these badass women have the most amazing bodies, right? Well, it’s because of a diet called the Whole30. This restrictive diet is seen as being called a “Reset” for your body by “flushing out toxins” caused by inflammatory food groups and stabilizing sugars and “rebalancing your gut.”

That has been debunked. Here is an infographic showing the rules for the Whole30 diet:

Now, you can use this restrictive “diet” to cut things out of your diet if you are having GI (gastro-intestinal) distress. But only with the permission of your doctor, please.

Pepper Potts Pushes Pretentious Program. Okay, not actually, Pepper Potts, but Gwyneth Paltrow. Her Goop diet came out about a year after Whole30. And I want to put it out there. I hate Goop. It is completely bonkers pseudoscience bullshit of the highest expensive caliber. It’s another one of those reset diets, I am not a fan. I am pretty sure this is where the celery juice and lemon water staples of every LA influencer came from. Oh and bone broth. (I am guilty of introducing these to my diet, I love celery juice and find it delicious, but there isn’t much nutrition to it). If you’re curious, Ms. Paltrow did a Harper’s Bazaar interview about what she eats in a day.

Ketogenic Diet Emerges in 2018. It is still all the rage, but is now combined with Intermittent Fasting (which is coming up). Originally it was designed to help with epilepsy back in the 1920s. So what is it? AT its base it is a high-fat, low-carb diet. You are required to eat less than 4 slices of bread’s worth of carbs per day (about 50g). So this rules out most fruits and grains. But in exchange, you get into the state of ketosis. Where the body burns fats instead of carbs. Though it is not good for long-term use. Fiber is a type of carb, fiber makes you poop. So a diet with little to no carbs tends to lead to a higher likelihood of constipation. You aren’t allowed to have fruits either (most fruits are very high in carbs, and consequence, fiber). You can see a list of items you can and cannot have below:

As a whole, I feel like not eating for long periods to lose weight is bad practice. Intermittent fasting is one of those diets than can be a slippery slope to disordered eating. But it is the most balanced, at least in my opinion. Proponents of this craze advocate for a well-balanced diet of the food groups, not junk while in your eating window. Below is an example of Intermittent fasting:

Greece. Italy. Spain. France. Absolutely beautiful countries, right? But what do they have in common? The Mediterranean Sea. The American Heart Association states that the Mediterranean Diet is one of the best diets to follow. I am biased as this is the diet I follow. It is well-balanced with an emphasis on veg, whole grains, and fruits. You can have dairy if it is low-fat or fat-free. And it is a good Segway for omnivores (people who eat both meat and vegetables) to transfer to a plant-based diet if they desire. Now, it does limit sugars, refined carbs, and fatty/processed meats.

There is an emphasis on being plant-based. So you see fewer meats and more legumes (which have a high amount of protein). Additionally, it there isn’t one way to eat a Mediterranean diet as the 16 countries that border the Sea all have different cuisines and spices – Israel will have similar dishes to Greece, but they will not be the same. The Mediterranean diet also puts a healthy emphasis on eating together with loved ones, which can lead to better mental health as well.

You can see a food pyramid of the Mediterranean Diet below:

Re-Re-Defining the Word “Diet.” As mentioned above, you may hear the word “diet” and think about ways to lose weight. The original meaning of diet is the way a person or community eats. And I believe that that definition needs to be readopted. I say this because of the statistics on eating disorders.

Anorexia is the friend I wish I never had. I mentioned parents encouraging children to lose weight after they hit puberty. That happened to me – I was roughly 13-14 years old when I was told I was “gaining weight” but I was being told by family that I was going to “balloon up” as young as 11-12.

In the following photo, I was roughly 12-13.

I was probably 80-90 pounds here. I had just started going through puberty about 2-3 years earlier. I was being told by my mom that I was eating too much and if I didn’t watch my weight, I would be 300+ pounds and “look like a house.”

Here we have 14-15 year old Gigi who was going through some severe body dysmorphia. I thought being over 100 pounds (barely) was a bad thing. I was constantly skipping lunches, eating small dinners, skipping breakfast, and doing a lot of exercises. I look thin here, and I thought I was huge. I also didn’t have a menstrual cycle between 12 and 16. Because a major side effect of Anorexia is not having a period. Your body is working hard to keep it alive that it shuts down “unnecessary” functions.

What I didn’t know at the time is with Anorexia comes a nasty rebound. Weight gain. Once I started “recovering” in 10th grade, I gain 60 pounds in about 6 months, roughly? I was 160 pounds.

Anorexia is a scary mental illness that causes worse body dysmorphia. Symptoms of Anorexia can be shown as below:

• Dramatic weight loss (or little weight gain)
• Denies feeling hungry
• Cooks meals for others without eating
• Concerned with eating around others/in public
• Problems with sleep
• Menstrual irregularities
• Poor wound healing
• Dehydration
• Body checking (looking in mirrors a lot)

For more information on symptoms of Anorexia, please see here.

Let’s discuss Anoreixa’s scary sister: Bulimia. Bulimia is a scary bitch, for lack of better wording. Binging and Purging are their hell. Bulimia is often seen as throwing up but it can also be overuse of diuretics (i.e laxatives/coffee).

What does this do to your body exactly? Well, mainly dehydration – throwing up and overuse of laxatives can cause you to lose a lot of liquids (think like when you go out drinking and your buddy tells you that you need to drink water – same concept).

• Electrolyte Imbalance: Same concept as above. Think about why you typically use Pedialyte when you are hungover. To introduce electrolytes into your system after expelling your fluids.
• Esophacal Damage: Especially if you are vomiting. It can cause a nasty condition called Mallory-Weiss syndrome, where you throw up blood.
• Boerhaave Syndrome: This nasty side effect causes your esophagus to burst. Immediate surgery is needed to remedy it.
• Acid Reflux/GERD: The bottom of your esophagus can end up burned from the stomach acid, which can cause indigestion.
• GI Distress in other forms: Constipation, Diarrhea, and IBS all fall under this. Along with tooth decay from stomach acids hitting your teeth. For a full list of symptoms, look here.

Did you know Anorexia and Bulimia have a mean little sister? Her name is Orthorexia. And she is the dark side of “clean eating.” Named in 1998, Orthorexia Nervosa is an obsession with “healthy” eating (think all those juice cleanses). Due to the symptoms of Orthorexia also having cross over with other mental illnesses (such as Anorexia and Obsessive Compulsive), it is hard to get a proper read on how many suffer from the ugly little sister.

Some symptoms include:

• Obsession with nutritional labels
• Restricting an increasing number of food groups
• Inability to eat anything outside of “clean” or “healthy” foods
• Overly critical of food choice of loved ones
• Fear of losing control

In 2016, a professor at the University of Northern Colorado proposed a 2 part criteria of how to better diagnose Orthorexia.

• Criteria A: Person has an obsessive focus on healthy eating to the point where their rules will become extremely harsher and harsher over time – and may do cleanses.
• Criteria B:  The person will notice mental health and physical problems – such as malnutrition and weight loss. Body image could be tied to how they follow their “healthy” eating habits.

With every new fad “diet” comes a new wave of junk science. From Paltrow’s GOOP to “clean eating” to “Raw till 4” if you can think of it, there is probably a fad diet of it. Fad diets are the diet culture’s version of “Rule 34 of the Internet.” There is no magic diet for weight loss. There is no magic pill. The only panacea you can consider for weight loss is some form of weight loss surgery or liposuction of some kind – but even with liposuction, you need to adopt a healthy lifestyle to keep that weight off – otherwise, you would be wasting thousands of dollars. Unless you have 1000s to waste, that’s your business.

Even with these ways of losing weight, there can be catastrophic outcomes. Like weight loss surgery. Sometimes body dysmorphia is so bad it causes already thin people to have weight loss surgery. Venus Angelic is a Youtuber who you may have heard of from the show My Strange Addiction for being a “Living Doll.” She had weight loss surgery and had a very terrible outcome that made her very sick.

What can we learn from this? That just because it is a fad diet, doesn’t mean you will lose weight. Losing weight requires lots of work. Learning about nutrients and what works best for your body. Starving, binging, purging, and obsessing over “healthy” eating doesn’t help.

What’s in store for Part 2? Discussion of the different types of diets (Vegan v Vegetarian v Carnivore v Omnivore and benefits of these diets).