January - the diet / cleanse / detox month! Hooray! Said no-one, ever, except of course the diet industry. But this year will, I suspect, be a little different. Whilst the diet industry is certainly not about to disappear, there is a new kid on the block who is set to disrupt the pervasive diet culture chat and provide an alternative to the January detox / cleanse / body transformation prattle. The new kid is Intuitive Eating and its best friend, Body Positivity. That, ladies, is fantastic news. The diet industry definitely has a lot to answer for and it’s wonderful that there is now a scientifically valid alternative that has some great research behind it. However, I still have one major problem with both body positivity and the diet industry: Both are trying to tell you what to do with your body! I’m guessing you didn’t quit alcohol and all of the societal norms surrounding its consumption to step right into another socially accepted framework that doesn’t take into account or respect your autonomy over your own body. So with that in mind, here are a few facts to help you navigate what choices you make for your body this New Year. Weight, or Body Composition? From a health perspective, body composition is vastly more important than weight. So what’s the difference? Essentially, body composition takes into account the proportions of the different tissues that, together, comprise our total weight. The simplest differentiation is lean mass and fat mass. The latter is fairly self-explanatory while the former is everything that isn’t fat, including bones, internal organs, muscle, etc. Fat mass; the amount of energy you have stored as fat, tends to change fairly slowly while lean mass can fluctuate by huge amounts over very short spaces of time, especially for women. A 2kg fluctuation in 24hrs is perfectly possible and that’s largely due to changes in hormones, glycogen storage (we store a certain amount of carbohydrate in our muscles and liver as glycogen, but for each gram stored we also store 2.4g water with it)
and what we have eaten / drunk that is still in the system. Lean mass, almost irrespective of fat mass, is an independent predictor of health and longevity. So what does that mean when it comes to diets? Essentially, anything that drastically reduces the amount of carbohydrate you’re consuming will reduce your weight quickly, as you will use up all of the stored glycogen in your muscles, but that doesn’t translate to any meaningful improvements in body composition. Instead, you’ll probably feel a bit low, maybe have some headaches, and your immune system is likely to take a bit of a dip. A lot of the low- carb research has been done on men, and the results on women aren’t quite the same. There is even some evidence that in peri and menopausal women cutting out all carbohydrates and whole grains can have a detrimental effect of body composition as you are more likely to lose muscle mass. In addition, sources of carbohydrates such as wholegrain rice and pasta, quinoa and other grains, bread, and skin-on potatoes are really important sources of fibre which is essential for a healthy gut, and in turn, is key to regulating hormones and keeping our immune systems fighting fit. Detoxes and Cleanses Your liver, kidneys, skin, and lungs are all responsible for removing toxins from your body 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. The best things you can do to help them do their jobs to the maximum is eaten a regular, balanced diet and breathe. I’ve also seen a number of diets referred to as resets, claiming that by consuming only certain foods you are giving your digestion a ‘rest’ after the excesses of Christmas. Anyone who is trying to sell you something that will detox or cleanse your body, or rest your digestion, in any way has clearly misunderstood some pretty basic fundamentals of biology. Furthermore these kinds of diets, no matter how short in duration, usually cut out at least one of the major food groups
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