Sometimes it is your favorite chocolate cake with maple syrup. Other times, it might be your digestive health.
When I was in junior high school, there was a girl amongst our cliques who had one crippling fear: fat people.
No, Lucy did not surge into running, screaming or flailing her hands above her head, whenever a plus-one walked into her proximity (like say a person with arachnophobia would do). Instead, she kept them company. Because as much as Lucy feared fat people, there was one thing she dreaded more: being seen as fat herself. Lucy would only stand near a person that belonged to a lower size category if there was a plus one in their midst.
I am sure, by now, you are all imagining some replicate of Rachel from ‘Mean Girls’. But Lucy was not the snob type. No side glances of judgement, no spreading the dirt behind your back. Not any of that. She was genuine and direct about her view of the fat community. She would ask her clique members questions like “What are you doing about your weight?” with genuine concern. She would share tips of her super-effective diet plans like some sort of skinny Santa Claus. And it was not even out of hostility. She did not mean to bully anyone, regardless of the fact that this was exactly the effect of her ‘innocent’ behavior. In Lucy’s perception, being thin was the ultimate norm and all plus-one people were unlucky extracts of the society who were constantly miserable and depressed about their size. When people took offense at her questions, Lucy immediately assumed it was because they were THAT sad and she had nothing to do with it.
To this day, I don’t know if she was just one of those ignorant people or if she received some inner satisfaction, but I know one thing: She was truly miserable herself.
Lucy herself was not perfectly thin — not the anorexic type anyway — but her analogies were at a good rate. She ate purely oats for breakfast, a salad for lunch and fruits all day—a high-fiber diet as doctors would describe. Once, we’d heard her screaming on the phone, arguing with her mom, because she had bought a whole milk and not fat-free. She had accidentally gulped down a whole glass. She spent the whole day making up for that with eating nothing else but oats. Lucy had the type of metabolism that as soon as she digested fat, it would show on her body. She didn’t gain weight, but she looked bloated.
Anyway, one day, during math class, foul smells kept making everybody’s noses cringe. And you know how that works. Murmurs start rising. Everyone is glancing at each other, trying to guess who the perpetrator is. One guy asked blatantly, “Who farted?” The laughing waned out a few seconds later. The pungent odors, though, kept on coming.
Later that day, we learned that Lucy had taken permission to leave school. According to her claims, the reason was: period cramps. Maybe it was the truth at the time. But she didn’t return for a whole week, until we learned that she had gastritis. And in the years that followed, she kept getting “period cramps” and periods of relapses.
I don’t know what exactly initiated her digestive problems, whether it was a food allergy or chronic stress or if it was “something she ate”. However, recently I read this:
“Changes in the gut flora can increase the rate at which we absorb fatty acids and carbohydrates, and increase the storage of calories as fat. This means that someone with bad gut flora could eat the same amount of food as someone with a healthy gut, but extract more calories from it and gain more weight.”
According to scientists, there’s a trillion of processing bacteria in our gut that are called “the microbiome”. These organisms are responsible for the healthy operation of our digestive tract.
Like the milk incident, whenever Lucy digested something out of her usual diet, it caused her bloating and diarrhea. Her gut flora had developed a dependence on her strict food choices. Because, of course, when there’s no fat or carbohydrates to be processed, our gut bacteria will fall into dormancy.
Furthermore, in order to have a strong immune system our body needs a well-balanced diet that contains all nutrients. Not just fiber, but proteins as well. Our immune system is made of proteins and relies on new protein synthesis. A diet low in proteins can weaken our body’s biological defenses.
The Institute of Medicine cited that the proper amount of protein is 71 grams per day for pregnant and lactating women, 46 grams for other women and 56 grams for men. For athletes, it is 0.64 to 0.91 gram of protein per pound of body mass daily, according to the International Society of Sports Nutrition.
A well-balanced diet of protein includes — aside from fruits and veggies — eggs, chicken, meat, cheese and dairy products. All foods that Lucy would consider fattening.
And yet you could argue, vegetarians avoid meat products and are still considered healthier than omnivores. Yes, that’s true. But just because vegetarians don’t consume certain types of food doesn’t mean they don’t include a variety of other substitutes in their diet. Lucy mostly consumed oats and green salads.
Our modern society with all its social media stereotypes puts so much pressure on girls and boys around the globe to be of one particular size. Most health sites and medical books promote methods of weight loss and stories of obese people that met success in their dietary plans. There’s so little research on the matter of our digestive health. The old prescription of high-fiber and fluid intake is effective for most people, but it has also provided a safe cover and excuse for the lack of further enquiry. So much that actual situations of proven inefficiency are highly ignored.
Lucy was a victim of this worldwide, social and medical practice. She was so obsessed with weight loss that she completely ignored her gastrointestinal health. (And the fact that fiber produces excess amounts of gas.)
Don’t be like Lucy.