For the last two years, every six months (or so) something in my health journey has triggered a drastic shift in how I think about food, nutrition, and diet. It's resulted in four "tried-and-true" diets that I no longer abide by, and as I get ready to alter my diet yet again, I find myself approaching it differently.
Because nothing anyone has ever told me about nutrition has been helpful.
I met with a diabetic dietitian twice a year for eight years straight. I'd seen an IBS dietitian six or seven times in two years, and it wasn't until I took freshman Introduction to Nutrition as a senior in college that I felt like I had a foundational knowledge of food and diet.
When four diagnoses piled up in two years, I began incorporating holistic approaches into my treatment plan, and I started with food. My list of "bad foods" quickly grew. Plans and traveling where I had no control over my food were major stressors, and trying to figure out what was "safe" to eat became debilitating.
Medical information contradicted the wellness world on social media, and both of those clashed with my own experiences and bodily responses. Nothing I'm going to share is newsworthy, but it's certainly been ground-breaking in my life!
Nothing here is medical advice, but maybe it'll give you confidence to design your diet more wisely, more freely, and more in-tune with your body's needs.
Why I Started Playing With Food
I'd had Crohn's Disease for about six months, and despite a round of steroids and responding to my medication, I wasn't doing as well as I wanted to be. My Ulcerative Colitis never had strong correlations with diet, and I was operating like one IBD is no different than the other IBD. One night, it sunk in. Crohn's is a whole different beast, and treating it would look very different.
How I eat is in my control, so I started with that and spiraled from there.
What I've Learned
How We Do Better
It Matters - Nutrition and Our Mindset Around It
Immediately after creating man, God planted a garden (Gen. 2:8). He then grew out of the ground every desirable food-bearing tree (Gen 2:9) and instructed the man, "Of all these trees in the garden, you may freely eat" (Gen. 2:16).
In a perfect and complete and unmarred world, food was created and given.
This world tells us many things about food...the government says Lucky Charms are healthier than eggs and beef. The crunchy community claims all health problems are a vitamin or mineral deficiency, and the scammers sell herbs as the cure to everything.
Doctors say losing weight requires a calorie deficit with no interest in finding out why the weight appeared, and they want to treat a hormonal imbalance with birth control. Nutritionists and dietitians off one-size-fits-all advice, regardless of medical history and current health status. Current diet trends change weekly and keeping up is both impossible and exhausting.
Food matters - we need to eat well in order to live well.
And our mindset around food matters - we need to think well in order to eat well, so we can live well.
What I've Learned
LABELS ARE NOT HELPFUL.
My first diet was low-FODMAP. I threw out every foodstuff that didn't qualify as "good," and was rigid about avoiding all fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. After six weeks, I began adding foods back in, paying close attention to what made me bloated, gassy, cramp, or have diarrhea. Those foods were quickly labeled "bad."
The wellness community on Instagram had me convinced that gluten and dairy were culprits in my health battle, and I embarked on diet #2. Along with my FODMAP "bad foods to avoid at all costs" list, I labeled gluten and dairy as "unsafe" foods for me, too.
Instead of understanding why these foods caused adverse reactions in my body, I just wrote them off. I missed huge pieces of understanding early-on, and it slowed down my learning process which in turn slowed down my healing...
BINGE-ING IS AN INDICATOR SOMETHING MORE IS WRONG.
During my gluten-free-dairy-free-era, I noticed a binging pattern in my eating habits. I'd "be good" for 7-10 days, and then I'd go "off the rails," eating gluten and dairy and processed food and fried food and eating way too much in one sitting. I'd feel terrible - emotionally and physically - and I'd determine to "be good" again.
Around and around I would go.
I paid even closer attention. I was binging at night - when the sun went down, and it was dark. Usually, I was up by myself. And it all started around the time my diagnoses anniversaries crop up.
Mistakenly, I thought focusing harder on food - being disciplined with how I ate, when I ate, sticking to my diet - would fix it. I thought this pattern was an indication that I was failing.
Months later, I had my first appointment with a naturopath. We agreed to try a different diet, and I realized the binge-eating was a cry for help.
FINDING WHAT WORKS IS ABOUT TRIAL-AND-ERROR.
We're going to call diet #3 a "nutritional reset" - gluten free, dairy free, processed sugar free, caffeine free, and alcohol free. These foods are known to cause inflammation, and our hope was by eliminating them and reintroducing them, we could identify what my body was specifically stressed out by.
In addition, I started therapy. I realized my disordered eating pattern was my mind saying everything was not okay. I knew I would not be able to do what my body needed unless my mind was healing, too.
All the frustration of trying and "failing" was paying off. I was able to stick with this new eating plan, and I began feeling better! For the first time in almost two years, I had hope for my health!!
Figuring it out takes time and trying something that doesn't work isn't failure. Failure would be not trying at all.
THE NEEDS OF THE BODY CHANGE, AND THIS IS NORMAL.
Then, I plateaued. I wasn't getting worse, but I wasn't getting better, either. I still wasn't content with my quality of life, though, so I decided to change my diet yet again. This time I was focusing on eating for my metabolism.
I started learning, actually understanding my body - how it functions and what it needs.
It made SO👏MUCH👏SENSE👏
I discovered the standard 2,000 calorie diet was most-likely undereating for all my body goes through and manages in a day. I began to see how the mechanics of balancing my macronutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates) stabilized my blood sugar and negated some of my fatigue and brain fog. I began learning and experiencing the inter-connectedness of all my body's systems.
I was discouraged at first, massively shifting my diet for the fourth time in two years. Why wasn't anything working long-term?! Then, I understood. Each shift, each diet is more specific, more detailed, and more honed-in.
Each adjustment has met my body where it is and moved it forward. Each new wave of learning and healing has moved me forward.
THERE'S A LEARNING CURVE, BUT EATING WELL ISN'T DIFFICULT.
The learning curves I've experienced have been more of UN-learning curves - disposing of all I thought I knew about food. As often happens, each unlearning revelation exposed more misguided advice, untoward attitudes, and places of unhealth in my relationship to food.
I stopped labeling food. Period. I turned my focus to foods that nurtured my body best. I began tracking my caloric intake - NOT to force myself into adherence but as a practice of awareness. I stopped basing my diet, nutrition choices, and food decisions on the experiences of others and began paying attention to what minimized my symptoms and maximized my well-being.
A new diagnosis has me preparing to change my diet again...five times in two-and-a-half years. I'm bracing myself as I do this alone, figuring out what works for me and my unique combination of situations, going against all conventional, medical, and even some holistic advice.
This learning curve may be my most challenging yet...it goes against my fiber. Making changes one at a time, waiting patiently for results, and not doing all the things at once.
How We Can Do Better
So how do we approach nutrition wholly and well in a culture saturated with misinformation, missing information, and contradictory advice?
For me, it starts with seeing and treating food as a friend. Believing food can benefit my body and living with certainty that there is freedom in food.
My journey involves paying attention to my caloric intake and learning to balance protein and fat and carbs. It will require me to learn everything about my hormones, my health conditions, and how nutrients play into all of it, and it means I find ways to enjoy food as I heal - mind, body, heart, and soul.
For you, maybe it is learning to can food or not kill a sourdough starter or shopping at your local farmer's market. Maybe you need to start growing some of your own food!
Or maybe doing better for you starts with changing your philosophy about food altogether...seeing it not as a liability but as a gift.
Perhaps it is seeking help for disordered eating patterns, learning portion sizes, or discovering what balance in your diet looks like.
Maybe we all need to unfollow those who are unhelpful in our food and health journeys. It doesn't matter where on the health and wellness spectrum they are. If they add stress or pressure to your life, hit "unfollow."
Maybe we all need to plop down stacks of research on the desks of uninformed or misinformed practitioners and demand better care. Maybe we keep searching for the practitioner who sees our individual needs and stories and cares.
It's okay to feel overwhelmed, but don't get stuck there.
Start where you can with what you can - pick up a book on eating whole foods, put a bit of salt in your water, eat breakfast and then drink your coffee, get outside everyday, wash your produce, and eat more fruit.
You don't have to do what I've done - please don't, actually!
We live in America, so I can guarantee there's someplace in your relationship with food and/or nutrition that can be better. Look for it - treat it tenderly and decide how to move forward better, more whole and healthier.
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