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Global food trends showcase both how far weve come, and what problems still need to be addressed.

New research at the University of Kent found that diets are undergoing complex changes worldwide. The team reports that parts of the world are shifting towards healthier diets, while other areas are still experiencing malnutrition and obesity as a result of poor food access and security. The overall dynamics also have important implications for environmental sustainability, both good and bad.

There are clear shifts in global food supply, and these trends may be responsible for strong improvements in nutrition in some parts of the world, says Dr Bentham, co-lead author of the paper and a Lecturer in Statistics at Kents School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science.

However, obesity remains a long-term concern, and we hope that our research will open doors to analysis of the health impacts of global diet patterns. Equally, we must also consider carefully the environmental impacts of these trends.

For the study, the team analyzed food supply data for 171 countries from the 1960s to the 2010s. They report that South Korea, China, and Taiwan have experienced the largest changes in food supply throughout that timeline, with animal-sourced foods (such as meat and eggs), sugar, vegetables, seafood, and oil crops becoming a much larger proportion of the areas overall diet. Such a shift in diet is to be expected in developing countries, as more disposable income means people can afford more varied meals with more expensive ingredients.

On the other hand, many Western countries have seen a decline in animal-sourced foods and sugar consumption; this trend is especially noticeable in high-income English-speaking countries such as the UK, US, Canada, and Australia, they report. This is likely the product of increased public awareness of the role our diets play in our health and of the latitude to pick what we eat offered by such rich countries (a product of varied supply and high incomes). But this trend isnt limited to the western world. Many countries around the world have seen an uptake in vegetable-based diets, the team explains.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the worst-off of all global regions in this regard. It still lacks adequate access to a diverse food supply, which the team notes can help explain why the region is still rife with malnutrition.

Despite the limitations here, shifts towards diet adjustment in the rest of the world remain significant. The decline in consumption for animal-sourced foodstuffs and sugar and the greater availability of vegetables are very encouraging to see. Such shifts may be paving the way towards more sustainable, healthier, and more balanced diets, at least in some parts of the world. The team notes that in South Korea, China, and Taiwan in particular, the greater consumption of sugar and animal foodstuffs is correlated with a dramatic rise in obesity rates. Taken together, these findings showcase just how important diet is to public health and environmental protection efforts at the same time.

Advances in science and technology, together with growing incomes, have allowed many nations to have access to a diversity of foods, explains Professor Majid Ezzati from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, the papers other co-lead author.

We must harness these advances and set in place policies that provide healthier foods for people everywhere, especially those who can currently least afford them.

The paper Multidimensional characterization of global food supply from 1961 to 2013 has been published in the journal Nature Food.

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Global diets are converging, and thats good news for our health and the environment - ZME Science

Two of the new 2020 decade's hottest trends are cannabis (CBD) and intermittent fasting (IF). While both are health-centric in nature, many wonder can you smoke marijuana or use CBD when adhering to an intermittent fasting diet plan.

Let's review if the medicinal plant's use can safely, effectively and legitimately be consumed while practicing the IF diet where the saying goes, the less you eat, the longer you live, the more you get to eat.'

Intermittent fasting is one of the diets that is presently gaining traction in the health industry, used for losing weight, promoting balance in blood sugar levels and overall just allowing the body's digestive system to rest and recharge by cycling between periods of fasting and eating.

Google Search Trends 2020 data on Intermittent Fasting and Cannabis

As you can see via Google Search trends analytics, intermittent fasting and cannabis are both in-demand 2020 topics of interest as people are starting to seek the therapeutic benefits of each but the real question is people who consume CBD or smoke marijuana, can they do one another or both while practicing the intermittent diet regimen?

The IF diet is fairly easy to follow, as it requires the user to go through lengthy fasts that last through the majority of the day, which is upwards of 16 hours. The schedule that the user follows can be modified to meet their own daily demands, and the participant primarily can eat what they want.

With any diet, choosing healthier foods is obviously more encouraged for better results, but theres no specific rules to follow this. This type of dieting has also been frequently linked to the improvement in insulin sensitivity as well as increasing overall longevity and wellness.

The consumption of cannabis is primarily known for stimulating the appetite, improving relaxation, and even eradicating pain by using CBD oils or gummies. But could it positively impact the experience of intermittent fasting? Lets first discuss the intermittent fasting diet, what the requirements are, and why so many people have gravitated towards its use.

Many people wonder about using marijuana and it giving you the munchies' or increased appetite hunger cravings may be against the eat less' intermittent fasting diet, but first let's dive into what intermittent fasting is, the types of IF diets to follow and then answer the question head on whether or not cannabis (marijuana and CBD) is applicable for fasters.

Intermittent fasting may seem like an all-encompassing trend now, but the practice has been around for over a thousand years and is just now resurfacing as a hot diet trend. The practice for ancestors was seemingly involuntary, as the early humans had to seek out ways to find food every day and were not always successful. Over time, religious and cultural groups found ways to employ fasting for their own purposes, often as a sacrifice in return for spiritual or other rewards.

The fasting experienced in todays culture isnt that different, apart from the current branding it has amongst health-focused individuals. Health and weight loss are major topics of discussion in the modern world, and studies even show that close to 45 million Americans work to follow diets every year. The market for exercise and weight loss products is highly profitable, adding up to approximately $33 billion spent amongst consumers that want to shed weight, no matter how successful their willpower is.

Intermittent fasting, for many, isnt just a temporary decision or diet; it is a change from their previous lifestyle, and the modifications that can be made to accommodate any schedule make it easier to stick with diets. Most commonly, consumers will follow one of three different fasting methods, the 18/6, the 16/8, or the Eat-Stop-Eat.

In the 18/6 plan, the individual abstains from eating for 18 hours, allowing themselves a matter of six hours to get all of the nutrients that they need in a day. The same rule applies for the 16/8 plan, except that the participant fasts for 16 hours with 8 hours left to consume all their daily nutrients. Most of the time, these first two plans basically cut out snacks at bedtime and end up skipping or pushing back breakfast until it is in the non-fasting part of the day.

The Eat-Stop-Eat method is a big more extreme. The participant is required to abstain from everything but calorie-free liquids for a full 24 hours. After the day is over, the user can eat with no limits for a whole day, but they repeat the fasting again on day 3. With this method, consumers often see the best results, as they preserve their lean muscle mass and improve hormone levels.

There is also the 12/12 split where you can ease into the Intermittent Fasting diet schedule and have a larger window per day for consuming foods and eating meals. Another intermittent fasting name is OMAD, or one meal a day where it is probably the most extreme version of IF dieting where you fast for 23 hours and eat just one meal every 24 hours. Also one other popular method of fasting intermittently is the 5:2 system where you eat normally for five days while essentially taking two days off from eating or very limited food intake.

The whole advocacy for this type of diet is due to the way that the bodys metabolism works. According to information from medical publications, after 16 hours without eating anything, the body automatically starts to use stored fat in place of glucose to improve weight loss. The body is put into a state of ketosis, much like when someone goes on the equally trendy ketogenic diet.

The other purported health benefits and wellness effects of doing the intermittent fasting diet include:

During ketosis, the body has to work to replace old cells and to repair damage to DNA. Thats where CBD and cannabis comes in.

One of the most common effects that consumers associated with cannabis use is the munchies, which is due to the stimulation of the appetite while consuming THC. For that reason alone, getting the stoned effects of THC may seem counterproductive to the fasting process. However, dont be quick to shut down the use of cannabis compounds, as there are a few that could actually help.

The compound in cannabis that many consumers are also familiar with is CBD, and reports from CBD Clinicals state that the substance is able to reduce the appetite, making it helpful to fasting. It also is linked to the prevention of diabetes and fighting inflammation in the body. Plus, since consuming snacks while anxiety or nervous is fairly common, CBD is capable of helping to curb this type of emotional eating with its relaxing effects.

Still, there are other compounds in cannabis that may prove to ultimately be helpful, when it comes to intermittent fasting. Tetrahydrocannabivarin, or THCV, is found in cannabis in small quantities and is primarily lauded as a suppressant for the appetite. It works in an opposite capacity to THC, which means that it can help consumers not to worry about the pangs of hunger that often begin during this type of regimen. Unfortunately, THCV has not yet reached the market, so consumers would be left simply with using CBD for now.

While CBD may not be good for the fasting moments in this type of diet, THC could still be alternated during the hours that the user is eating instead. With healthy meals, consumers may need to make certain foods more palatable, and THC can serve its purpose. Realistically, when it comes to cannabis use during an intermittent fasting diet, the key to success lies in using THC and CBD at the right times.

On the opposite side of the cannabis discussion, a different question may arise. Rather than using cannabis to promote greater success in a fasting diet, can a fasting diet be used to push out THC? To answer this question, it is important to understand the way that THC works in the body.

THC can be consumed as either an edible product or an inhalable one, and each practice has a different reaction in the body. When smoking, THC is absorbed into the bloodstream through the lungs, reaching the heart before it is pumped through the entire body. It takes about 15 minutes for the psychoactive molecule to peak, while the non-psychoactive molecule can last for up to 7 days.

When ingesting THC, the bloodstream absorbs the THC through the stomach and intestines, which then filters through the liver for it to be metabolized before binding with any of the receptors in the endocannabinoid system. Then, it takes the same path as with smoking; heads to the heart and is pumped through the body.

Intermittent fasting is designed to promote weight loss, pushing the body to use the stored fat for energy and glucose. THC is fat soluble, leading it to be absorbed rapidly by the fat tissue after entering the bloodstream. Users with more fat on their body will store more THC. While the speed of the metabolism determines how quickly THC may exit the body, intermittent fasting on a regular basis can increase the speed of the metabolism.

Based on the correlation between a higher metabolism and how quickly THC is flushed from the body, intermittent fasting theoretically could help the body to flush out THC sooner, albeit indirectly. However, a study in 2014 tested out this theory with the following results:

Neither exercise at moderate intensity for 45 min. nor 24-hr. food deprivation caused significant elevations in blood or urine cannabinoid levels in our six human subjects. [] We conclude that exercise and fasting in regular cannabis users are unlikely to cause sufficient concentration changes to hamper interpretation in drug testing programmes.

When it comes to smoking marijuana and using cannabis-infused products during an intermittent fasting diet, the question shouldnt be of whether it helps a diet, because there are too many compounds to offer a single answer. Most simply, the answer is that cannabis use may help, depending on the compounds and when they are used. Successful dieters may choose CBD use during the fasting hours and THC during the eating hours, but there is not enough testing on this type of application to say with certainty.

While the safe bet is to answer the question of whether or not cannabis and intermittent fasting work together in 2020 and beyond is that it depends on the user (as with anything), but the truth is it will always come down to tolerance, discipline and personal goals. Whether you smoke marijuana or use CBD oil-infused supplements and adhere to the intermittent fasting diet plan, both of these in-demand trends are serving up a much-needed fresh perspective on what it takes to be healthy in the new decade.

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Intermittent Fasting with Cannabis: Can You Use CBD and Marijuana on the IF Diet Plan? - HealthMJ

By: Karl Blankenship, BayJournal.com

Is the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load and its cleanup deadline enforceable? The answer is complicated.

TMDLs are required for any impaired waterbody one that does not meet standards set by a state to ensure a water body is safe for people and aquatic life.

A TMDL sets the maximum amount of a pollutant that the waterbody can receive and still meet those standards. The Bay TMDL maximum loads are established for the pollutants nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.

The TMDL, often called the Bays pollution diet, allocates those loads among the states and major rivers that drain into the Bay. It also establishes specific limits for entities with a discharge permit.

But, in a strict sense, it is not the TMDL that enforces those numbers for individual dischargers. The permits do that job but they must be consistent with the TMDL.

TMDLs are not self-implementable, said Mike Haire, who helped manage the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys TMDL program for years, and now teaches environmental science at Towson University. But, he added, the bottom line is you cant write permits that arent consistent with the TMDLs. And if water quality standards are not being met after those permit limits are in place possibly because unregulated sources of runoff are not meeting their goals the limits might have to become more stringent than the requirements in the TMDL, Haire said.

Likewise, rules governing TMDLs do not establish deadlines, they only state that goals should be achieved in a timely manner.

But courts have held that water quality standards are to be met reasonably promptly, and the Bay cleanup could face a court-imposed deadline if the effort continues to fail, said Ridgeway Hall, an environmental attorney who has worked on Bay issues and written about its TMDL. (See the related article,MD threatens to sue EPA, PA over lack of action as regional tensions rise.)

While the Bay TMDL sets limits as all TMDLs do, it has several unique aspects. It includes an accountability framework, developed by the EPA and the states in the Bay watershed that goes beyond what TMDLs traditionally require. The framework includes a 2025 cleanup deadline that was agreed upon by the state-federal Bay Program partnership in 2007.

The accountability framework also requires states to write plans showing how they will meet cleanup goals, setting two-year milestones to provide reasonable assurance that they will meet their goals. Those milestones were suggested by the states.

The TMDL also outlines steps the EPA can take if states fall short of their goals for reducing pollution, including unregulated discharges from sources such as farms. Those consequences, such as forcing further reductions from regulated sources, are grounded in the EPAs authority under the Clean Water Act.

The contingency actions were set up to get peoples attention and to recognize that there is a limited set of actions that the agency can take under the Clean Water Act, said Rich Batiuk, retired associate director for science with the EPA Bay Program Office and a key architect of the Bay TMDL. If states want to control their own destiny, we are saying great, but you need to hold up your end of the bargain or there is a price to be paid, he said.

The Bay TMDL is also unique because its goals were adopted into the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement signed by the EPA and Bay states.

Section 117g of the Clean Water Act, which creates the state-federal Bay Program, includes a requirement that the EPA administrator shall ensure that management plans are developed and implementation is begun by signatories to the Chesapeake Bay agreement to achieve and maintain the nutrient goals of the Chesapeake Bay agreement

In terms of TMDL authority, I think 117g presses EPA into a different place than other TMDLs in other places, said Jon Mueller, vice president for litigation with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

The Southern Maryland Chronicle is a local, small business entrusted to provide factual, unbiased reporting to the Southern Maryland Community.While we look to local businesses for advertising, we hope to keep that cost as low as possible in order to attract even the smallest of local businesses and help them get out to the public. We must also be able to pay employees(part-time and full-time), along with equipment, and website related things. We never want to make the Chronicle a pay-wall style news site.

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Thank you for all of your support and I hope to continue bringing Southern Maryland the best news possible for a very long time. David M. Higgins II

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Can the EPA enforce the Chesapeake Bay's 'pollution diet'? - The Southern Maryland Chronicle

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) If your New Year's resolution is to lose a few pounds, it pays to pick the right diet.

The Mediterranean diet was just named the best diet in a new study because it's easy to follow and the food is tasty, according to Dr. Neil Skolnik, associate director of the family medicine residency program at Abington-Jefferson Health.

When talking about dieting with patients, he asks what they enjoy eating.

"Then we come up with a diet based on the kinds of food that they like. The other thing that I think is incredibly important: it's a marathon, not a sprint, and so we don't want to pick the best diet for three months. We want to pick a lifestyle approach," he said.

He said that's why the Keto diet was named one of the worst diets as it's hard to follow.

And don't forget the exercise component; that's just as important as what you eat.

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Doctor offers advice on picking the right diet - KYW Newsradio 1060

Contributed by Joy Victory, managing editor, Healthy HearingJanuary 13, 20202020-01-13T00:00:00-06:002020-01-13T00:00:00-06:00

What you eat may playan important role in how well you hear, especially as you get older, according to the latest research.

In a 2019 study, women who reported eating healthier diets had lower rates of hearing loss than those who had a less-healthy diet.The study, from Brigham and Women's Hospital, included 3,135 women and was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The researchers measured the women's hearing, and then three years later measured their hearing again. The women who reported closely adheringto commonly recommended healthydietswere 25 percent less likely to develop high-frequency hearing loss than those who didn't.

The team also found that "the odds of a decline in mid-frequency hearing sensitivities were almost 30 percent lower among those whose diets most closely resembled these healthful dietary patterns," according to a news release from the hospital.

"Given that hearing loss is so common, a 30% lower risk is considerable,"said lead author Dr. Sharon Curhan, MD, a physician and epidemiologist at Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston. "These findings strongly suggest that the development of hearing loss with age may not be inevitable and that eating a healthy diet may be helpful in reducing the risk."

The study was an extension of previous research published in 2018 that found a similar pattern when looking at a large group of women participating in the Nurses Healthy Study II. In that study, researchers saw a positive correlation with a healthy diet and lower rates of hearing loss.This pattern held true even after researchers accounted for physical activity and cardiac health status, according to a summary from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which helped fund the study.

The diets included the alternate Mediterranean diet (AMED), the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), and the 2010 Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI-2010).

There are several theorieswhy a healthier diet may protect against hearing loss, much of it related to our overall cardiac health, Dr. Curhan said.

A healthy diet is linked to a lower risk of heart disease and conditions that inflame or damage the arteries and veins, such as diabetes.Just as with overall health, blood flow to the ears is very important for healthy hearing. The inner earwhich is responsible for detecting soundis especially vulnerable to changes in oxygen levels, inflammation and blood pressure, for example.

"A healthy diet can also be an important source of antioxidants, which help protect against damage from oxidative stress," she said. (Oxidative stress is linked to cell damage.)Curhan also said that many fruits and vegetables provide essentialantioxidant vitamins and minerals that our bodies cannot make on their own.

In fact, there's been some research looking at how the vitamins and minerals in our diet may improve our hearing health.

One study, for example, showed that supplementing older men's diet with the vitamin folate (also known as folic acid) helped lower the risk of hearing loss. It is one of several vitamins linked to healthy hearing. Additionally, the minerals potassium, zinc and magnesium are all essential for preserving good hearing.

It's important to note that these two studies weren't designed to prove cause and effect, only that a pattern exists between a healthy diet and a reduced risk of hearing loss. And because hearing loss has many causesfrom exposure to excessive noise to geneticsa healthy diet can only offer so much protection. That's why it's important to know the other main ways forhow to prevent hearing loss.

Hearing loss is increasingly linked to not just struggles with communication, but also cognitive decline, depression and social isolation. If you or a loved one is worried about hearing loss, find a hearing care provider near you.

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Can a healthy diet reduce your risk of hearing loss? Here's what the research says - Healthy Hearing

Imagine this youre at a party having a conversation with a stranger. Within a few minutes, the stranger starts to bring up their diet and how they havent eaten an animal product in the last 11 years. You start to wonder what for? Does the absence of meat pose any problems for this stranger you met 12 minutes ago?

The vegan diet has made a sizable dent in the health and food industry in the last decade. According to a poll by Charles Stahler of the The Vegetarian Resource Group from earlier this year, about 20% of U.S. adults always or sometimes eat vegan meals when eating out and about 2% of U.S. adults consider themselves vegan.

The vegan diet excludes all animal-based products and uses plant proteins instead. So no meats, fish or poultry, eggs and dairy products, said Amy Drescher, Ph.D., a professor in the University of Arizona Department of Nutritional Sciences in an email. To be healthy on this diet it is important to have plenty of fruits, veggies, nuts and vegetarian protein sources beans, nuts, soy products, almond and nuts, milks and [vitamin] B-12 sources.

The hype around the diet mostly centers around the idea that greens must be a staple of ones diet in order to stave off certain diseases and live a healthy life. Other reasons for choosing to adopt a vegan diet include the ethics behind eating animals and unfavorable prior experiences with eating meat.

I decided to be vegan after awhile of being vegetarian, said Samantha Cantor, a senior at the UA, through a text message.

Initially, I chose to be vegan because I wanted to lose weight. The idea of [eating] meat always made me sick and queasy, but after being vegetarian for a couple of weeks, cheese and milk started making me feel the same way. I dont want to harm animals, and I truly think its disgusting to drink cow milk. Its unnatural and cruel.

Like anything in life, going to the extremes certainly comes with its downsides. Similarly, completely avoiding all types of animal products means missing out on some crucial nutrients, including iron and vitamins D and B-12. Certain foods that satisfy the vegan diet, like spinach and almonds, contain high amount of calcium but are often poorly absorbed in the human body.

There is more and more evidence about how healthy plants are for you to eat, Drescher said. They supply nutrients that help our hearts, reduce cancer and diabetes risk and help us with weight management.

Phytates are the major storage form of phosphorus and inositol in plants; however, they have anti-nutritional activities once in the human gastrointestinal system. They form insoluble complexes due to strong interactions (chelations) with certain ions, such as calcium, iron and zinc. Consequently, they are not absorbed as well in the human body, most likely in the small intestine.

The hardest part about being vegan is eating at other [families] homes, Cantor said. Also, eating what other people cook is challenging because you dont want to offend them, but you know theyre probably using butter or eggs.

Regardless of the downsides, in 2018, U.S. consumers spent nearly $1.9 billion on plant-based milks as well as $3.3 billion on plant-based foods. The vegan diet is becoming increasingly more popular in the United States, even with some potential downsides to such an important life decision.

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A fad across the nation: a plant-based diet - Arizona Daily Wildcat

New research from Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future shows that no single diet can cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and that policymakers should support diets that fall in line with national nutrition requirements, culture, and trade.

Our research indicates theres no one-size-fits-all diet to address the climate and nutrition crises, says Dr. Keeve Nachman, senior author of the study, in a press release. Context is everything, and the food production policies for each country must reflect that.

The study, Country-specific dietary shifts to mitigate climate and water crises, looks at how shifting to diets with a lower carbon footprint in 140 countries affects emissions and freshwater use. The results could guide policymakers in providing enough, nutritious, climate-friendly food that fits national tastes, the authors say.

If all countries would adopt the typical diet of high-income countrieshypercaloric, and rich in meat and dairythen GHG emissions and water footprints related to diets would soar by 135 percent and 47 percent respectively, the researchers warn. Recent reports have shown fast industrialization in countries such as China is driving a strong shift towards the Western diet.

Switching to veganism which has the lowest footprint per capita across all 140 countries studied, could cut GHG emissions by as much as 70 percent per person, says the report. In the United States, for example, vegans would cause only 16 percent of the emissions of animal-based diets, even if they ate more to get all their nutrients. But it is highly unlikely that countries can shift entirely to a single diet, the authors say.

There will always be trade-offs. Environmental impact alone cannot be a guide for what people eat; countries need to consider the totality of the nutritional needs, access, and cultural preferences of their residents, says Dr. Martin Bloem, study co-author and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.

Researchers confirmed again that cow, sheep, and goat meat cause the highest emissions in meat production by a margin, with beef 316 times more carbon-intensive than pulses. But not all stakes are made the same, which can change a diets footprint; beefs contributions to emissions can vary for example, one pound of beef from Paraguay produces 17 times more GHGs than the same amount of Danish beef, as Paraguayans continue to clear their forests to make space for livestock.

But overall, eating meat once per day may be better than switching to vegetarian diets with dairy and eggs, the research shows. The dairy industry, along with meat, is on its way to becoming a bigger GHG emitter than the biggest oil companies, a recent report says. In 91 percent of the countries surveyed, choosing to eat mostly plants with a little meat was less than half as carbon-intensive than relying on vegetarian diets that included dairy and eggs.

The study shows that diets providing animal protein from small fish, mollusks, and insects had an environmental impact almost as low as a vegan diet across countries. In almost half the countries, eating so-called low-food chain diets also fulfills vitamin B12 requirements for adults, cutting out the need for supplements.

The good news is this research can be a part of the solution, as it now gives policymakers a tool to develop nationally appropriate strategies, including dietary guidelines, that help meet multiple goals, says Dr. Bloem.

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Balancing Diets, Carbon, and Nutrition Takes More Than Changing the Menu - Food Tank

As early as third grade, Chlo Hilliards mother was sending her off to school with Slim Fast shakes for packed lunches. Albeit elementary school is meant to be a creative playground, scholastic adventure and perhaps brilliant season of discovery, coming-of-age wasnt as fun for someone like Hilliard. For as long as she could remember, her entire identity was shaped around her towering physical appearance.

Standing over six feet tall and wearing a size 12 in shoe and dress by the tender age of 12, Hilliard could hardly fit in while growing up in her largely Hasidic Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Navigating such an overwhelmingly white and orthodox environment as a young, Black girl surely didnt soften whatever blows or bullies that came with her already-unique challenges.

After decades of fad diets, weight loss pills, and unrealistic expectations, Hilliard made the life-altering decision to stop punishing herself over what she thinks she should look like: I'm healthy, I work out, I have a trainer, I'm in good shape, but I may never have a six-pack and I just need to be fine with that.

Hilliards moment of truth set her on a path to self-actualization and the results are hilariously illustrated in her new book F*ck Your Diet (And Other Things My Thighs Tell Me), a collection of essays that explore race, feminism, and popular culture. Taking inventory of childhood trauma and societys reinforcement of Eurocentric beauty ideals, Hilliard, 39, turned her personal misadventures into gut-busting comedy and witty teaching moments.

When it comes to food and diet, it's a much more complicated conversation than we've been having when it comes to social and political influences, she explains to BET. And it's not just genetics; it's where you live, what you can afford, and what you have access to. Once you figure out the bigger picture, you kind of can breathe a sigh of relief, because youve realized youre not the problem.

She continues: You also have to factor in economically what do they have access to or don't have access to; a lot of people in this country live in food deserts.

In the spirit of #2020 vision, Hilliard looks to help young Black and Brown girls everywhere set their eyes on the horizon instead of the scalebecause why play small when you can live larger than life? Though she is not a doctor or a medical professional, she has done extensive research in the space and we are curious to know what works for her.

From eating better to dating wiser to working smarter, she gives us a few practical tips to a healthier lifestyle this year. Adapt the ones you think you can, and discard the ones you can't. Everything is all about balance.

F*ck Your Diet out now.

Originally posted here:
F*ck Your Diet Author Chlo Hilliard Wants To Give The Conversation About Black Women And Weight A Makeover - BET

Im Leah Carlson (@watchmewaistingaway), 31. I live in Asheville, North Carolina, and Im a customer experience coordinator. In 2014, I got a vertical sleeve gastrectomy to kick off my weight-loss journey and have kept over 180 pounds off since.

I remember being drawn to food even at a young age. At family get-togethers, all the other kids would go outside to play, and I'd sit near the food and listen to the adults talk. By the time I was 9 years old, I was sneaking and eating peanut butter in the middle of the nightand I was overweight. I continued developing this unhealthy relationship with food all through my school years.

In February of 2011, my first marriage ended. I was a 411-pound single mom with no job, no money, and no hope. But one night, I was at a friends wedding and happened to sit next to someone who was very passionate about fitness and health. He told me something that still sticks with me today: "If you want to change, stop blaming others."

That was really hard to hear, but a lightbulb went off for me in that moment. I had been blaming others for years. I decided to take responsibility and commit to change.

Change didn't happen immediately, though. I met my now-husband through friends of friends, and we got married in 2014 and knew we wanted to have a baby. But I was obese by the time I had my first child, and morbidly obese after my second child.

At my highest weight of 411 pounds, I realized I could not be left alone with my two young toddlers. I was unable to pick them up or chase after them in public. It was a safety issue at that point. I was really interested in weight-loss surgery and had done a lot of research on bariatric surgery. I knew that losing weight would be hard work, but I needed help.

Around this time, I also discovered the keto diet. When I was in high school, I got familiar with the Atkins diet, so I had been following a low-carb way of eating off and on for so many years. Going on the keto diet made sense for me. I was also eating keto for four months before my surgery.

What I love about ketowhich focuses on eating high-fat and low-carbis the freedom I have to get creative with cooking. It works well for me because of the accessibility. I know that I can go to a restaurant and find something that fits my needs.

One of the hardest things about trying to lose weight for me was the idea of starting a new diet that would be completely foreign to me. Thats why keto and low-carb, sugar-free eating is still such a good fit for me today. I love cooking and eating (and that is okay!). So I have learned over the years to prepare things I'm craving that fit my way of eating. I don't deprive myself.

I also try to shop the outer edges of the grocery storemeaning the produce, proteins, dairieswhile staying away from the processed items in the inner aisles. I love to get creative making sugar-free desserts and low-carb comfort foods.

For instance, I'll give myself the general goal of making sure I spend at least 30 minutes of my day doing something active. This can be anything from playing with my kids outside, working in the garden or with the chickens, or even cleaning. Just moving.

Weight-loss surgery may be a helpful too for some people. But I had to work hard to lose weight after my surgery. And I still struggle with the mental challenges of food addiction every day.

Throughout this journey, Ive realized the biggest part of losing weight isn't physical. It is emotional, mental, and even spiritual changes that you go through, too. Taking responsibility is surprisingly freeing.

Ask for and accept support and accountability help. We aren't meant to do this alone. It can feel intimidating at first, but you will be surprised at the willingness of others to help you on your journey.

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'After Bariatric Surgery, I Stick To Keto And A Sugar-Free Diet And Have Kept Off Over 180 Pounds' - Women's Health

Its wellness, but not as you know it. This is the anti-diet movement, a liberating take on health that encourages its followers to stop demonising food and idealising weight loss. It might feel like a revolution but its not really new. Anti-diet culture, informed largely by radical feminism and thefatacceptance movement of the 70s, has been around for decades. But its recently hit the big time thanks to the likes of actress and activist Jameela Jamils iWeigh Instagram account (where youre invited to measure your worth in personal values and achievements rather than kilos) and UK-based nutritionist Laura Thomas, who in 2018 published a book called Just EatIt,emblazoned with the unofficial emblem of the anti-diet movement, a pink-glazed doughnut.

For anyone whos suffered through the lemon detox, the Atkins diet or even a clean-eating lifestyle, its a tantalising idea. Here is permission to eat the foods we crave, without a side serve of guilt. Diets, once considered the gateway to glowing health and a bangin bod, are being called out foroverpromising and underdelivering, and leaving a legacy of physical and mental health problems to boot. Like sugar and gluten before it, diet is now a four-letter word.

The anti-diet movement is about not being a victim of diet culture anymore, explains dietitian Lyndi Cohen, one of Australias most outspoken anti-diet advocates. I think in many ways its a female fight because women are so often targeted by the diet industry. Women especially end up tying their self-worth to how they look, and the diet industry teaches us that thats what matters most.

This message is so pervasive that author and vulnerability researcher Bren Brown ranks body image and appearance as the number one shame trigger for women. And that makes weight loss and dieting a complex beast for many of us.

We get so hung up on dieting because we believe that getting a thinner body will make us happy, says psychologist Glenn Mackintosh, founder of Weight Management Psychology and author of Thinsanity: 7 Steps to Transform Your Mindset and Say Goodbye to Dieting Forever (Hachette, $29.99). But if you talk to a lot of people in thin bodies, theyre not happy because the body image stuff is in your mind.

RELATED: 6 Reasons Not To Diet This New Year

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Ask an anti-dieter and theyll tell you that the solution is to do away with diets altogether.

I dont think theres a place for the traditional diet anymore, says Cohen, because research shows us that a healthy lifestyle that isfree from restrictions and absolutes is more effective.

Clinical nutritionist Jessica Sepel, who has a program, app and books focused on what she calls un-dieting, agrees. Diets work for a little while, until they dont, she says. Theyre unsustainable. Giving up dieting is the beginning of finding freedom with food and your body.

But not all health experts are ready to bin diets for good. Take British-born, Sydney-based PT James Smith. The author of the upcoming Not a Diet Book (HarperCollins, $32.99), Smiths social media posts take sharp aim at trends like plant-based eating, the keto diet and intermittent fasting. Hes also known for his polarising weight-loss mantra, calorie fucking deficit.

I personally think the term dieting has been largely misconstrued due to the vast and growing amount of charlatans selling their special diet to the masses, proclaiming you need a certain tea, fasting protocol or workout to lose fat, he says. However, in my opinion, we cant lose sight of what a traditional weight-loss diet is. It is a period of sensible restriction. Thats it. After we enjoy lavish holidays, we come home to ... more sensible spending [and] no one ishaving an issue with that, are they?

The anti-diet message serves a purpose for those battling disordered eating, acknowledges Smith, but reckons it has the potential to leave a large amount ofpeople feeling a bit lost. He explains, Ive worked with thousands of clients and helped them lose fat, andtothem and to myself, counting calories is an exercise ofliberation [rather] than obsession. Dieting isnt always problematic for everyone, admits Mackintosh, adding that in our appearance-obsessedworld, its common to want to lose weight sometimes, and expecting people to simply banish those thoughts is unrealistic.

We do see that in our body-positive communities, that people end up feeling ashamed for thatvery normal desire [to lose weight], he says. Having a little bit of focus [on weight] and recognising your weight can be important for wellbeing and health is fine. Its when it takes over that it starts to be a problem.

There is a real argument for weight loss for health, too, says surgeon Dr Nikki Stamp, author of Pretty Unhealthy: Why our obsession with looking healthy is making us sick (Murdoch Books, $32.99). Its really important to differentiate the bad or fad diets from good nutrition ormedically and/or dietetically supervised and prescribed diets. I do wonder if that is a place where antidiet sentiment can be seen as going too far, she says. Whileweight management is not necessarily appropriate for reasons like aesthetics, there are times where even small amounts of weight loss are important for health.

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Underpinning the anti-diet philosophy is intuitive eating,an approach that emphasises eating without rules or judgement and learning to listen to the bodys natural hunger and fullness signals. For many cruising Instagram for wellness advice, though, the idea of eating mindfully might be overshadowed by the more appealing concept of eating a slice of cake for breakfast if you feel like it.

Diets dont work, so here, have a doughnut, the memesseem to say. Confused much? Its one of the weak points of the anti-diet movement, acknowledges Mackintosh. Weve got people talking about the harms of dieting and what not to do, and nowwe have to step up and say, OK,well,hereisaviable alternative, he says. The problem is, the nature of Instagram all pretty pictures and snackable content makes it easy for thenuance of intuitive eating to be lost. The [idea]thatits eat whatever you want all the time is wayoff themark and doesnt account for one of theprinciples that is gentle nutrition, says Stamp.

Its also not another set of food rules to follow or a tool for weight loss. Intuitive eating is easily reshaped into a diet in disguise in the wrong hands, warns Cohen.

Theanti-diet movement has become really trendy andas a result there are a lot of people who are jumping on the bandwagon and while I think thats collectively awesome, I think theres a lot of confusing messages now, she explains. For example, you have people claimingto help you heal your relationship with food, but in their next post theyre talking about how to do intermittent fasting or telling you to stop filling your facewith food. And its hard to trust whosactuallygoingto help you find balance withfoodandwhos justusing it for marketing.

Some pointers for spotting undercover diet culture? Cohen suggests being wary of supposed anti-diet accounts spruiking before-and-after photos, telling youto cut foods, or encouraging cleanses or detoxes.

If anti-dieters and kilojoule counters agree on anything, its that theres no one-size-fits-all answer.

Its for each to ... figure out [on their own], but [dieting] should not be ruled out, says Smith; while Cohen says that the anti-diet movement isnt a magic cure for body dissatisfaction.

Until the [mainstream] culture shifts, weregoing to feel like were swimming upstream to get a sense of self-acceptance, she explains.

Whether youre pro or antidiet, learning tolet go of a thinis best mentality is the healthy balance we could all use more of, argues Stamp.

Rather than defining health from one number, shifting the focus to what we do what we eat, if we exercise will improve our health independent of a number on a scale.

For Sepel, its about kindness. When we treat our bodies with kindness, eat nourishing foods, restmore and stress less, our bodies naturally find their balanced weight, she says. And this looks different for everyone. There is no perfect shape or size. More kindness, less diets? Well raise a doughnut to that.

Listen to our chat with Lyndi Cohen on WH Uninterrupted below...

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How Diet Became The Dirtiest Word In Wellness - Women's Health

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