I get why it’s confusing, if you have insulin resistance, are prediabetic, and looking for a way to make your numbers better. I had a client today who was exasperated. She reads the low carb ‘experts’, and they say to eat plenty of good fats and hardly any carbs (sugar is the devil incarnate) and definitely avoid fruit (except for a small serving of berries). You read other ‘experts’ and they talk about low-fat, plant-based being the way to go. And plenty of variations on these themes, such as the Mediterranean Diet. 

Everyone is looking at one piece of the puzzle, one possible approach, one part of the science, and then investing their career and marketing the hell out of it. So be careful when you go with someone who has an investment, has written a book, and built their career around a particular approach. They immediately have a bias. It may have worked for them. At least when they wrote the book. But is it right for you? 

Intermittent fasting (IF) has become very popular and it is not surprising. It promises better health and weight loss, just by narrowing the hours in the day when we eat. This is something many women have learned to do anyway, by skipping breakfast or other meals to minimise calorie intake and manage their time deficit.

There is also quite a lot of evidence (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34579056/) reported to show that IF can help to improve insulin resistance, lower blood glucose and triglycerides, improve immunity, improve brain health, normalise fat metabolism and improve longevity. One of the problems is that most of the studies done have been done on men, and very few are women specific. Those that are point to women’s metabolisms suffering with IF in ways that are not often discussed. This article goes into this in more depth, but below I discuss the reasons I spend more time discouraging women from IF, than encouraging them.

Our bodies do a good job of detoxing. They are built to detox. The bowels take toxins out of the body. The kidneys filter and excrete through urine. The liver filters and transforms toxins with complex chemical reactions. The skin excretes toxins through sweat. We even breathe out toxins through our lungs. That’s a very simplistic overview, but it’s the gist.

So what’s the big deal about needing to ‘detox’? Well, there are a couple of things.

Eating disorders are rife in our culture, and one of the biggest risk factors for developing an eating disorder is following an extreme diet. This means a diet that, for example, leaves out or minimises a food group (fat or carbs); is extremely low calories (eg 1200 calories); separates a person from being able to eat with family or socially; or cuts out animal products (vegan or vegetarian diet). While some people can do these things without developing an eating disorder, they are red flags and make a person 12-18x more likely to develop an eating disorder.

Other risk factors are so common that we may not even recognise them as risk factors for an eating disorder. For example, it is common to have an unhealthy body image. This means hating one’s body for how it looks. Weight stigma is also so common, and subtle criticism by others- family, social groups and the media- can cause an intense body dissatisfaction feeling, leading to damaging behaviours.

Binge eating is always associated with food restriction. So many of my women clients are trying to lose weight but struggle with binge eating, which is terrible for their self-esteem. They feel they have no willpower, so there must be something wrong or weak about them.

However if you try to eat too little, your body will override your willpower. …….

More good news for those who love their coffee.
Coffee has positive effects on the cardiovascular system, with 2-3 cups a day showing the most benefit (more or less than that, less so for most conditions)……

There are many, many foods that are grown well here in WA. We have a Mediterranean climate, like the west coast of America, and the southern European countries. This means cool, wet winters, and hot dry summers. These conditions are different to the east coast of Australia, where the rain is more evenly distributed throughout the year.

The traditional Mediterranean way of eating is well studied and one of the healthiest on the planet. It promotes lower levels of cancer, cardiovascular disease, blood sugar issues and dementia. It promotes longevity. Here in Perth and the south-west we are in a win-win situation. Many Italian and other southern European families have grown food here for generations, and some still do in some suburbs of Perth.

10 Recommendations on how to protect yourself against cancer, by the American Institute for Cancer Research

The American National Cancer Institute has spent over $20million on a research campaign to determine the most cancer protective foods that we can include in our daily diets. This is what it came up with:

Diets that are based on plant foods, including lots of vegetables, fruit, wholegrains and legumes, are linked to lower rates of cancer. All vegetarian diets (including those which are vegan, include eggs, or include meat or fish up to once a week) are associated with overall lower rates of cancer.

Drinking more than 1 cup of coffee daily may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, according to a 2021 long term Australian study. This study went for over 10 years and the adults in the study were an average age of almost 70 when it started, and of normal cognitive ability. Over the next 10 years they were tracked and those with higher coffee consumption had a lower chance of transitioning to Alzheimer’s status in that time.

Cravings and what they might indicate…..

Food can be important for a healthy immune system. In fact food has been a primary way people have traditionally managed illness. Some foods have much evidence for health benefits particularly around immunity:

One of these is yoghurt. Regular consumption of yoghurt is associated with reduced rates of many lifestyle diseases, better bone and muscle health, lower rates of cardiovascular disease……

Is sugar really to blame for everything it is blamed for?

Have a look at these foods which contain added sugar.

So Good Almond milk: filtered water, cane sugar, almonds (2.5%), mineral (calcium), emulsifier (sunflower lecithin), natural flavour, salt, mineral salt (sodium bicarbonate), vegetable gum (gellan), antioxidant (Ascorbic acid), vitamins (B12, B2, B1)…..

I don't think it is a big deal to have your one, perhaps two delicious cups a day. There are even many health benefits that have been studied, and coffee drinking is associated with longevity.

However, for many people, drinking strong coffee on an empty stomach first thing in the morning…

Let’s talk breakfast…some women love it, many skip it. Many women don’t feel like breakfast…or they learn to skip it to reduce overall calories or have a shorter eating window, such as with intermittent fasting.

No problem skipping breakfast…unless you are a woman with any of these issues:

Ordinary table sugar is made up of a glucose and a fructose molecule. Its GI is 65+. Honey is 61+. When eaten along with proteins and fats- such as with milk, or in a dessert- these are slowed down even further.

So, I decided a few months back now to start eating sugar again. To stop with the stevia. To moderate the starches, although not avoid them altogether. To allow myself honey in my tea, and to eat homemade ice cream, orange juice, and to let go of guilt around sugar.

I feel good. I feel well fed. I feel sweetness has been fully allowed back in my life. I feel nourished and nurtured.

For many years, I stayed away from sugar and from fruit juices. While I was reared in Australian suburbia with always having orange juice in the fridge, it was something I rejected many years ago as being less than healthy because of its lack of fibre, its sugar content. And while I did buy juice sometimes for my own kids, since I figured it was a lot better than drinking soda full of sugar or aspartane, it still felt like a compromise.

Orange juice, not from concentrate, 100% with no added anything, is now one of my favourite foods! I absolutely love it, and enjoy it at least twice a day. I buy the Nudie pulp free…..

Eating dairy has been a significant part of many cultures traditionally. Whether cow, sheep, goat, buffalo, donkey or camel, humans have adapted to the highly nutritious milk of whatever mammals were available to us to domesticate. Cohabiting with animals has a long history. We have learned to store it, process it into butter, cream, yoghurt, cheese and other delicious and nutritious foods…..