I grew up always trying to lose ten pounds.  Now, when I look back on old photos of myself from high school, I have that sickening and sad feeling, knowing how anxious I felt about my size, at my pesky weight of 120 lbs.  Wow, if she could only see me now.

If she could, she’d probably be astounded to see that even though I didn’t develop the flat stomach or carve out the thigh-gap, I still had graduated from high school and college, gotten a job, had relationships, made new friends, bought new clothes, went to parties, moved to New York City, and essentially didn’t live out her greatest fear that not losing the weight would mean the end of the world and an unfulfilling life.  And yet, as I type those words, there’s a small demon voice in my head that says, “But if you were smaller, it would be better.”

That voice belongs to Diet Culture.  It comes out in the form of every weight loss pill commercial, every Weight Watchers knock-off brand (I’m looking at you, Noom), and every mother who ever pinched your love handle as you walked by (thankfully not mine).  Diet Culture is the ever present, loud and yet also soft and unsuspecting, voice that tells you that nothing you do matters unless you are thin while you’re doing it.  And it’s a lie.

In a simple Google search for “diet culture,” the following commonly searched questions were suggested to me.  As I read them, I felt like I was reading my own search history from 2008.

What time should I stop eating to lose weight?

Which fruits burn calories?

What is the best breakfast for weight loss?

What should I each for lunch on a diet?

What sweets can I eat on a diet?

Is it OK to have dessert on a diet?

And my personal favorite: Can I eat pudding on a diet?

To the last two questions, the answer is YES.

The Netflix mini-series Explained best summarized the difficulty with losing weight: the diet industry is pushing you to eat less, while the food industry is pushing you to eat more.  Why is either industry in charge of how we feed ourselves?

The diet and weight-loss industry, according to businesswire.com, is currently worth $72 Million.  That’s made up of weight loss cookbooks, fitness apps, “detox” teas, “meal replacement” shakes, snack packages labeled “guilt-free,” gym memberships, Spanx, juice cleanses, appetite suppressants, and bathroom scales.  The list could fill the rest of this article.  Basically, anything you’ve ever paid money for with a vision of yourself in your head at some future date, where you look thinner and happier.  There are two questions that invalidate the entire industry: Have you ever successfully become the person in that vision?  And what would happen to the industry, if in one moment, we all became okay with how we looked right now?

I’m willing to bet the answer to the first question is no, and the answer to the second is that it would all come to a crashing halt.  That’s the point.  The diet industry, and subsequently diet culture as a whole, isn’t here to see you become your best, “healthiest” self.  It’s here for you to constantly be chasing an image of yourself that is unrealistic, fail to reach it, and then continue to pour money right back into all the same products to try again.

Lately, I’ve seen a new wave of diet culture infiltrate us as we all stay home to wait out the coronavirus as best as we can: the weight gain that could happen while in quarantine.  Author and Body Positivity activist Meghan Crabbe published an Instagram post recently that read, “It’s okay to gain weight while social distancing. It’s okay if your body changes because your routine has. You do not need to use this time to lose weight. You do not need to make up for your isolation snacks.”

There are people dying, losing their loved ones, or who are on the front lines of the virus just trying to get it under control.  I have never been given perspective about my body image faster, than realizing how lucky I am to have a strong immune system and lungs that continue to give me the air I need every day.  There may be companies gearing up to sell us products to lose the “quarantine weight gain.”  Let’s not give them the power this time.  Let’s be thankful for what our bodies give us, no matter the size, shape, or numeric relationship with gravity.

Particularly during quarantine, when all other distractions of life are stripped away and you are left sitting at home with only yourself, the TV, and all the emotional baggage you have yet to work through, you might need, more than ever, to say yes to the pudding.

Sami Roberts is a graduate student in  NYU’s Magazine and Digital Storytelling program.

The post Say Yes to the Pudding – Especially During Quarantine appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Fuelled by celebrities and the media, gluten-free eating has become a huge dietary trend in North America in the last few years: medical professionals have been skeptical; proponents of the diet say it helps with weight loss and general health. Supermarket aisles now boast an endless selection of gluten-free packaged foods. Photo by Mary Zarikos.

The thought of someone willingly going without bread and pasta makes Megan Henry, of Toronto, cringe with frustration. Henry, 23, has Crohn’s, a disease that causes inflammation and damage to the gastrointestinal tract. For her, cutting out gluten is not a choice.

“If I eat a piece of regular toast, I will be curled up on the couch for days,” Henry said. “I have to be very cautious with my gluten sensitivity. For me, eating even a crumb of gluten will trigger a flare up.”

Gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye, can cause severe allergic reactions when people suffering from Crohn’s and celiac disease, a condition damaging the lining of the small intestine, eat it. Yet gluten-free dieting has become the latest dietary trend. Alternate health practitioners, athletes, personal trainers and celebrities like Oprah and Gwyneth Paltrow have attributed their weight loss and glowing skin to it. Out of the 1.6 million people on a gluten-free diet in North America, 80 percent of them have not been diagnosed with celiac disease.Gluten-free has become a full-blown fad—and skeptics and medical professionals have not been quick to embrace it.

“People want to believe there is an easy solution to weight loss, low energy, high blood sugar and other medical issues,” Nutritionist Dr. Amy Stephens, 40, of Westchester, NY, said. “Proponents of gluten-free claim it helps, or alleviates many of these issues.”

Stephens thinks it is a myth that gluten-free can solely solve these common nutrition issues in a country where the majority of people overeat on wheat-based carbohydrates.

“We eat too little of the gluten-free foods like fresh fruits, vegetables and lean proteins,” Stephens said. “Most people, fueled by the media, misinterpret the gluten-free diet.”

With the rise of the gluten-free movement, the food industry has exploded with an endless selection of gluten-free packaged foods in supermarket aisles nationwide. Consumers buy these gluten-free replacements, made with ingredients like amaranth, quinoa and cornstarch, not realizing that they are often heavily processed, just as fattening and high in sugar.

“I have seen this with type 1 diabetes and celiac patients,” Stephens said. “They see higher blood sugar spikes after eating gluten-free cereals, breads and desserts. Gluten-free foods also have comparable calories, fat and sodium to non gluten-free foods.”

Following a gluten-free diet would require more time spent on food preparation. With 50 percent of meals being eaten out, Stephens does not find this to be a sustainable long-term dietary solution for everyone.

“Most of my patients want to spend very little time shopping and preparing foods,” Stephens said. “And so they unsuccessfully try to fit gluten free into an already stressed lifestyle.”

She does agree that cutting out gluten may be helpful for overweight patients to try as a noninvasive approach to weight loss, if done properly.

“Studies show, overweight patients lose weight more successfully if they eliminate large food groups,” Stephens said. “Patients that overeat pasta, bagels, breads or desserts will benefit by cutting these foods out and going gluten-free.”

For Mai Brantley, 21, of St. Louis, Mo., the local title holder for Ms. America, gluten-free dieting combined with “clean eating,” a focus on eating pure, unprocessed foods, has been the answer to her health and weight loss goals as she pursues Ms. Missouri this coming June.

“I thought the whole concept was really strange at first,” Brantley said, referring to her personal trainer who lost 13 pounds after eliminating wheat from his diet. He urged her to watch “Hungry for Change,” a documentary about the hidden truths of dieting and the food industry.

“I didn’t know so many chemicals derived from wheat,” she said. “Now I look for products that are gluten-free, but not high in chemicals.”

Brantley, who is not allergic to wheat, says she will only eat Ezekiel 49, a kind of bread made from sprouted wheat. Anything that is not true wheat, she will not touch.

“I’ve lost a ton of weight,” Brantley said. “When wheat was in my diet, I was always hungry for something bread related. Since going gluten-free, my cravings subsided. One of the areas of the competition is swimwear. So it’s really a big deal to get in shape.”

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