From Regret to Balance: Heather Carey’s Insights on Mindful Eating and Avoiding Holiday Diet Pitfalls

Are you ready to reclaim your relationship with food this holiday season? Join host Heather Carey in this enlightening episode of Real Food Stories as she navigates the complexities of food choices during Thanksgiving, a time often fraught with emotional eating and overwhelming food fads. With the holidays just around the corner, many of us find ourselves caught in the cycle of overindulgence followed by regret. Heather shares her compassionate insights on how to break free from these patterns through mindful eating practices that honor our bodies and nourish our souls.

As a culinary nutritionist, Heather offers invaluable nutrition advice, emphasizing the importance of focusing on real food rather than succumbing to the allure of fad diets that promise quick fixes. She warns listeners about the deceptive nature of detox diets and cleanses that flood the market during this festive season, revealing how these approaches can lead to a harmful cycle of restriction and overeating, ultimately sabotaging our weight loss goals. Instead, she encourages embracing a balanced mindset around food, reminding us that healthy eating is not about deprivation but about making informed choices that support our well-being.

Throughout the episode, Heather provides practical tips for recognizing diet myths and bad diet books, highlighting the red flags associated with buzzwords like ‘detox,’ ‘cleanse,’ and ‘miracle. ‘ By sharing her personal food stories and experiences, she fosters a sense of community and understanding, empowering listeners to reflect on their own food beliefs and family food traditions. With a focus on mindful eating, Heather inspires women in midlife to cultivate a healthy lifestyle that honors their unique journeys and embraces the joys of cooking for health.

This episode is not just about navigating the holiday season; it’s a heartfelt conversation about the importance of self-compassion and the power of making sustainable eating choices. Whether you’re grappling with menopause health, exploring the Mediterranean diet, or seeking to overcome food confusion, Heather’s insights are a guiding light. Tune in for a dose of encouragement and practical advice that will help you approach food with love and intention, ensuring that this holiday season is filled with joy, connection, and mindful eating practices that nourish both body and spirit.

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Transcript:

Speaker #0
Hi everybody and welcome back and if you’re just tuning in with me for the first time it’s so nice to meet you and I’m very glad you’re here with me. I am your host Heather Carey, nutritionist, chef, mom, and a woman who has been around the block with food. I want to open up about real food in relationship to health, weight, and our bodies so you can make peace with what you eat. Now we are just a few weeks away from the biggest eating holiday of the year here in the United States. And I have been around for far too long to be fooled by this season and all that is about to come because the holidays play out in the exact same role every single year. I know exactly what will go down with you. And if you are like so many people in this country who have yet to learn the right way to eat real food, and if you’re struggling with those menopause pounds or energy or just not feeling like yourself, here is what I am predicting is going to happen to you in the next few weeks. You, my friend, are going to swear that you will not blow it. during Thanksgiving this year, or that maybe a detox right before the big day would be a great idea, you know, to lose a few pounds before and after all of that eating, because after all, there is no way you can’t not overeat and overdrink on that day. Your family’s coming over, you’re all in it together, eating and drinking. That’s what families do together, right? Well, The starvation detox diet started to feel less and less like a good idea. And you couldn’t really deal with the detox because who wants to starve themselves for five days? And besides, it’s the holidays. This is supposed to be fun, right? So you swear that you will not eat a thing before you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner. And you make it until about three o’clock and you start nibbling. Maybe everyone’s having a holiday cocktail. Inhibitions get lowered. And by now, you are truly starving and more than ready to eat whatever appears in front of you. The cheese platter. And now it’s dinner. You really shouldn’t. But when else do you get the chance to eat creamed onions or that sweeter than sweet potato casserole? And screw it. You’ll think about it tomorrow. And then… the pies. How can you not? When else does pumpkin pie and whipped cream come around? One of each for sure. Pumpkin, pecan, your aunt’s favorite cheesecake. It’s all so good. And now you are so stuffed that you get on the couch uncomfortable and feeling more than regretful. You will never do that again. You might even question your sanity or wonder what an earth is the matter with you. Why can’t you just have more discipline? In fact, now you are really going to go on a diet. Okay, let’s pause this scenario for a second because I totally understand this feeling of desperation and reprimanding because I used to do the same exact thing year after year, holiday after holiday, swearing I would never eat that much again. And then the next holiday would come and there I was. And then it was January and that’s for another podcast. So next week, I am going to give you some really important tips to make it through the holidays feeling great. But today I am playing around with the first scenario I talked about, the one where you decide that it’s time to go on a desperation diet. I want you to be ready for the onslaught of diets that are going to be appearing on bookshelves and on your Instagram feed. And I want you to know what signs to look for and if you choose to even go on a diet. Now, if you have been listening to me for a while, I think you might know where I stand on diets. Now, I want to preface this and say I am not talking about diets in the way of eating, like what we need to eat every single day, or the Mediterranean diet. Those are eating styles, and those are just ways of eating. I am talking about the books that you are finding in droves on the bookshelves right now. So fad diets and quick weight loss schemes are notoriously famous for not working. Or if they do work, they’re helping those few who write those personal testimonials. about how they lost 10 pounds in three days, and they never tell you what happens after that. And what happens is that statistically, about 90% of people who go on a diet end up gaining the weight back, and then some. Diet books are alluring. It’s really no different than taking a walk down a grocery store aisle that is packed with junkie processed foods. These foods need you to sell you. And they do this with flashy words like, quote, great source of calcium or all natural on just about every food label that you can imagine. Flashy food labels increase the sales of food. And this is no different when you are looking at diet books. So today I wanted to arm you with some information for if and when you’d like to get a copy of this book. do start perusing those aisles or you’re clicking around on Amazon for your next false promise. But first, are there any good diet books? Because there’s so much confusion around food, I emphatically believe that everyone should get educated on what and how to eat. Nutrition 101 should be a required course in all schools, starting with kids when they are in kindergarten. There are, in fact, a lot of good books about eating well and not being on diets. They are just like the produce in a grocery store. They are good for you. They’re not screaming with headlines and scare tactics, and they don’t take the spotlight in the world of diets. They don’t sell a ton of books on Amazon, so they probably don’t come up in your feed. But they are there, nonetheless. I’m going to have another podcast coming up on some really you great resources for you. So I won’t dive into that too much today because I really want to emphasize first some things to look out for when it comes to buying a book on fad diets. Now remember, just like food, there is marketing to be done to make a book sell. Words matter, and if they can get your attention, then it is that much better for the book sale. So here are my key signs of a bad diet book and what to watch out for when looking for your next way to eat and lose weight. Okay, number one, the first thing to look out for when considering reading a diet book is to look for words like detox or cleanse. Now, just like the word natural is meaningless in the world of food, and I’ve talked about this on prior podcasts, These two words are equally as meaningless in the world of weight loss. Detox and cleanse have gotten out of hand and can really do so much mental damage because they have us believe that we have either done something wrong, we are dirty, we need to be cleaned, and that wrong must be corrected. We either ate too much, we ate the wrong foods, we drank the wrong drinks, and we really should know better, but we don’t. So a detox or a cleanse is the solution. This is especially applicable right now, right around the holidays, when these types of diets are going to come up in reaction to all of the eating that happens. Now, does it make sense to do a cleansing diet or detox after a couple weeks of parties and celebration? Does detoxing really work? Now let’s get clear. The market for detox products, which includes books, teas, pills, juices, and herbs, is projected to be a $75 billion, with a B, dollar business in the next few years. And Dr. Mark Hyman, who I have mentioned in past podcasts, has a book called The 10-Day Detox Diet. Getting right to the point, the book really cuts to the chase. Cut out all your, quote, bad foods. Only eat low-glycemic foods and protein. And, of course, use his supplements, only available on his website. Now, when I read the reviews in the book, some people complained of starving on this diet, but they did lose 10 pounds in 10 days. Of course, when you lose all that weight by reducing your calories a great deal, you will end up probably gaining that weight back. Now, I would love to hear from the people who said that they lost the 10 pounds in 10 days and follow up with them to see if they actually gained the weight back on this. seemingly impossible diet. And if you’re wondering what the big deal is about going on a detox diet, here are a couple of reasons to not even start this trend with yourself. One, you will likely lose weight because you are drastically reducing your calories. Once off the detox, like I said, you will likely gain it all back. This has been proven time and again through research on metabolism. decrease your calories to unreasonable levels, and in turn, decrease your metabolism. Once you start eating normal again, your brain is in such a state of restriction that it will rebound and hold on to all the calories it can get. It’s pretty little hands-on, and you will end up gaining the weight back. So let’s talk about a few other reasons that you want to be very wary of a detox diet. One is that they might contain large quantities of water. I’ve seen detox diets where you’re drinking gallons of water a day. So water or herbal teas, that can cause a serious imbalance in your electrolytes. Another reason to never go on a detox diet is the unauthorized products that might be promoted, such as laxatives and other supplements to clean yourself out. This could also cause an imbalance and really cause some harm. So do yourself a favor and remember that you do not need to detox your body. It already knows how to do its job all by itself. And while I’m at it, if you do feel the need to eliminate something out of your diet, how about alcohol or smoking? Two well-known carcinogens. My point is, lose the things you know are harmful and remember that food is not one of them. Now, the medical medium who I have also mentioned in prior podcasts likes to soften things a little bit with his detox protocols by using the word cleanse on the cover of his books. Cleanse somehow sounds a little more forgiving than the punishing detox word. In his book, Cleanse to Heal, another nice word, Anthony Williams tells you, and I quote, If you think you don’t have any need to do a cleanse, if you’re sure you couldn’t possibly be harboring any toxins in your body, well, think again. In today’s world, there are poisons and pathogens that threaten our health starting before we’re even born, and they continue to hold us back as we encounter them in our everyday life. Okay, that sounds a little scary. We are harboring pathogens before we are even alive on this planet. He goes on. Cleansing is a vital tool for fighting against these burdens as long as you go about it in the right way. And that’s why you need this book. Now, he goes on to say that his cleanse and his other life-saving protocols address very specific health needs, including an anti-bug cleanse, a morning cleanse, and a heavy metal detox. Cleanses in this book speak to what’s truly going wrong. inside of our bodies that no trendy lifestyle approach can ever address. Now, can someone tell me what an anti-bug cleanse is? And if you know it, please let me know. I would be so curious to hear about that. And again, the language of need, as in you need this book, otherwise you will be doing the cleanse wrong, is a big warning to stay away from books like this. Okay. The second warning signs of a bad diet book is proclaiming your diet book is not another diet book. So here we go again, Dr. Hyman, in his book titled The Pegan Diet, which apparently is a riff on the paleo diet and the vegan diet, although I still am perplexed on how exactly you combine a diet that is heavy on animal products with a diet that shuns animal products. Anyway, Dr. Hyman says on the very first page of his book, quote, do we really need another diet book? The Pegan diet is an undiet, he says. Oh, an undiet. That’s something I haven’t heard of before. Then he goes on to promote his food as medicine claims and functional medicine as if. You mean eat real food, Dr. Hyman? Just put the word medicine after it and make it official sounding. His introduction reads like a PR catalog for an online nutrition certification school. Not a lot of substance and a whole lot of fluff. There are a lot of fancy words being thrown around in this Pegan Diet book, and this is my number three of the warning signs of a bad diet. Using fancy words and elitist terms like functional medicine, root cause, food is medicine, things that you have to spend thousands of dollars on to get these services sounds very new, agey, and sacred. But what do they do exactly? What is functional medicine? Well, functional medicine is apparently getting at the, quote, root cause of disease. And you know what the root cause is. 99% of the time in functional medicine. It’s almost too simple. Get rid of processed foods and replace those with real unprocessed foods. Save your money on functional medicine with all of their overpriced testing and doctor visits. I am telling you this today for free. Here it goes. Crowd out your processed foods like candy, packaged foods, and baked goods, fast foods, and cook at home. Eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats. There, I saved you thousands of dollars. You’re welcome. Now, some detox and diet books and undiet books also use words like miracle, magical, or solution. These words are like the sunny side of the diet world, filled with hope and promise. And when I searched on Amazon for… diet and miracle together, I came up with over a thousand books. Books on pH balance, veganism, metabolism miracle, the detox mono diet that promises a miracle by eating grapes, the miracle carb diet, the diabetes miracle, the alkaline miracle, the bone broth miracle diet, and on and on and on. Trust me on this. Language is powerful. And if you have been scared off, by threatening words like detox, then a miracle solution is more for you. Except that it really isn’t. These words are simply another way of saying diet. And speaking of the sunny side of diets, women over 50 are direct targets of some of the wacky diet books out there. A search on over 50 and weight loss came up with over 4,000 books. Just take a diet like the keto diet and place the words, quote, over 50 next to it. The keto diet for women over 50, intermittent fasting for women over 50, the list goes on. I understand this one personally. I am a woman over 50, so I know the feeling of being very vulnerable right now and your body’s shifting and changing. Women in my age group are particularly confused. Some women claim that they just look at food and gain weight. And if you’ve been raised in the diet culture I often talk about, this is a hard time to shake that belief about going on another diet. Now, number four on the next thing that crazy diet books like to do, so you will buy those books, is to use scare tactics and words like hidden or dangerous or scary. Dr. Steve Gundry wins the award in this category. I talked about calling out the quack doctors in a prior episode, and for good reason. Real quack doctors have real medical degrees. So why are they in the business of selling books and products rather than helping people with their health? As a doctor, he is ethically obligated to give factual information to his readers. So why does Gundry spew out information in his books that are simply you incorrect. I believe that most people, the general public, is not going to know enough to look into and fact check what he says, nor are they going to take time to look up studies. He’s a real doctor after all, and medical doctors should be believed. Gundry also has ads literally everywhere on the internet. They are almost impossible to miss. You know those ads that talk about power washing your insides or warning you not to eat those foods. with a picture of a banana. If you’re one of the very few who have not seen these ads, more power to you. But now that I have told you, you cannot unsee what you know. It’s all clickbait to lure you into products and books. I personally have never clicked on them for fear that they will infiltrate my entire computer. But I have heard that they are hour-long ads of supplies are limited, act now rhetoric. I would say very, very far away from those. And to title his first book, The Plant Paradox, The Hidden Dangers in, quote, healthy foods, unquote, that cause disease and weight gain is absolutely outrageous. I had many scared clients asking about this book when it first came out. I thought healthy food was to be, well, healthy and good for you. Isn’t that what Dr. Hyman says? Well, not according to Dr. Gundry, who is a cardiologist and who claims that lectins, which are proteins found in all plant foods, but mostly in beans, whole grains, and legumes, are responsible for the high prevalence of autoimmune diseases, diabetes, leaky gut syndrome, and neurodegenerative diseases. Hold on. I thought Gundry was a cardiologist. What is he doing treating autoimmune diseases or any other diseases besides heart issues? Anyway, lectins, he claims, can wreak havoc on your body by binding to carbohydrates and in turn can cause a whole host of symptoms. Cramping and gassiness are the minor symptoms. interfering with the absorption of vitamins and minerals are the more serious ones. When lectins bind to certain foods, your body may fight back, and that is where the autoimmune theory comes in. Sounds scary, right? Because of these scare tactics, Gundry has sold millions of books, millions of supplements, and has made himself a lot of money. But here’s the facts. Ready? Lectins do, as a matter of fact, cause these issues. But lectins are found in very high amounts in uncooked beans and grains. Uncooked. I don’t know about you, but the number of times that I am eating uncooked beans and grains is never. If you are using dried beans, you will soak them, rinse them, and then cook them. That does the trick. Bye-bye lectins. Lectins are destroyed by cooking. I also want to make an important mention about the number of people in the world that do eat beans, whole grains, and other plant foods for centuries and for their survival. People who eat mostly plant foods are some of the healthiest people alive, have the least amount of health problems, and live the longest. And last note, there is absolutely zero evidence for his claim that eliminating lectins from your diet, which you would anyway when you cook food, helps with weight loss? None. Weight loss is a numbers game, not an elimination game. If anyone has lost weight on this diet, it is because they have cut calories. This happens in most diet books, actually. The author tells you to cut out something like all dairy or grains or gluten, and by a miracle, you lose weight. Certain foods do not cause weight gain, the amount that what you eat of it does. Dr. Gundry is working off… of his own crazy theories. There is no evidence that lectins lead to any long-term health issues. This book, along with all of his other misaligned books, are ones I would stay very, very far away from. But this gets even better. I have talked about watching out for those celebrity endorsements, and Gundry, like all the other quack doctors, has the usual suspects in his book. Dr. Oz, Tony Robbins, Dr. Hyman, and… There’s really nothing more to say about that. Just be warned. Here’s the takeaway if you choose to jump into a diet this holiday season. Most diets do the same thing. They reduce calories that nudge you to lose weight. The keto diet eliminates whole food groups. The paleo diet eliminates junk and sugar. The intermittent fasting diet eliminates calories. Some diets remove specific proteins like gluten or lectins, which in turn cause you to remove a lot of foods and thus reducing your calories. From here on in, you can be aware and mindful of the warning signs of a questionable diet. Does the diet mention a detox or cleanse? Does the diet claim to not be a diet at all? Does the diet use fancy medical terms like functional and root cause? How about… light and breezy words like miracle or solution? And finally, does the diet book get right to the point and use words like scary or dangerous? We all need to eat well, and we all have a right to enjoy our holidays too. So if you feel like you have overeaten on Thanksgiving, be kind, be mindful, and simply start again. This is a difficult season for food. On that note, thank you so much for being here today and listening. And if you have any thoughts on today’s episode, please do not hesitate to leave a comment. And if you loved this podcast, please leave me a review. It helps. me so much to get the word out. Have a great day and bye for now.