Rose Quartz Latte
Much like rose quartz, this latte helps one to purify and opens your heart chakra bringing about ...
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No dairy. No gluten. No or low carbs. Counting grams. Counting macros. Counting calories. No sugar. No processed foods. No eating after a certain time. Only eating in a specific time window.
The list of food rules we hear from diet culture seems to be never-ending. It’s easy to get sucked in when we are promised more confidence, worthiness, and happiness if we just eat a certain way. However, rigid food rules often lead us to a place of poor health on multiple levels—including poor gut health.
I have had countless clients complain of constipation, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, only to discover they were rooted in problems caused by food rules they learned from someone on social media, their personal trainer, or a friend or family member.
Most of the time, when my clients have rigid rules around food they also experience related anxiety, which can cause ailments like nausea. It can be easy to believe that it’s the food you have created a rule around that causes GI distress. And it’s no secret that unscientific messages abound in diet culture about “bad” foods.
For example, if you force yourself to avoid added sugars, the next time you’re around cake, you will likely feel distress. If you eat the cake, continuing to believe it’s bad, the upset stomach that may occur is likely caused by that anxiety, not the cake or the sugar in it.
And according to Danielle Ziegelstein, MS, RD, LDN, this anxiety can affect how our bodies process nutrients.
“Our brains are in constant communication with our guts via the gut-brain axis. When we eat in a stressed state, we’re much less likely to eat mindfully—things like chewing thoroughly, eating slowly, and focusing on the taste of the food,” she says. “When we eat too quickly, fewer digestive enzymes get released in the mouth, and later in the rest of the GI tract, and the food is not broken down as well as it should be, which in turn can cause reduced digestion and absorption of all the nutrients we ate.”
Food rules disconnect us from our bodies because they ignore our natural cues, like hunger and fullness, and create an overall stressed state.
If food rules cause you to restrict energy (calories) or not eat for long periods of time (like skipping breakfast or lunch), you may miss your body’s natural, comfortable hunger cues and you may become overly hungry often—wreaking havoc on your physical, emotional, and mental states.
And Ziegelstein says the mindlessness that comes with food-rule-induced stress can prevent people from honoring their bodies’ boundary of fullness, “since they’re not slowing down and paying attention to when they are full and satisfied,” she explains.
While eating past fullness is okay and normal sometimes (and a part of the Intuitive Eating process), if we are constantly pushing past our bodies’ boundary, we will have frequent GI upset and discomfort.
Avoiding or eliminating large food groups, like grains, can cause an imbalance in our gut microbiota, or the beneficial microorganisms in our GI tracts.
“Different types of foods offer different bacteria, so eating a varied diet can lead to higher bacterial diversity, and thus a flourishing microbiota,” says Ziegelstein. “Eliminating major food groups can essentially limit the richness of the gut bacteria, which can cause poorer gut health.”
A varied diet includes foods from all the food groups: grains, fruits, vegetables, protein, and fat. (Of course, if you have a diagnosed food allergy, this is an exception to the rule.)
The impact of food-related stress can cause constipation or diarrhea, according to Ziegelstein. “Stress can impair [the] function of the muscles in our gut. This can mean either accelerated or delayed movement of food through the stomach and intestines,” she says. “Slowed down transit through the GI tract may lead to constipation, while abnormally quick transit, paired with suboptimal nutrient absorption, can cause diarrhea.”
And an energy deficit brought on by food rules can cause gastroparesis, a slowing down of stomach emptying, which can result in bloating, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain, and early fullness.
Here are a few alternatives to food rules that may help you develop a healthy gut:
Read more about foods that can help us cope with anxiety.
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