Weight-Loss Drugs, Sugar Addiction and More

It’s been a while since I shared a round-up of some of the content I’ve been consuming lately.

I hope you find the following pieces illuminating and helpful. Once you check out the ones you're interested in, I think you'll be as grateful as I am for these incredibly smart and gifted content creators.

Ozempic
There’s been a lot of buzz regarding the new weight-loss drugs in the past year. In this episode of Maintenance Phase, Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes do a deep dive into the research and discuss the (often problematic) discourse surrounding these medications. 

It’s an informative, balanced and thoughtful review—one you’re unlikely to get from mainstream media.

What’s the Deal With GLP-1s?
On her Find Your Food Voice podcast, registered dietitian Julie Duffy Dillion explains how GLP-1 drugs, like Ozempic and Wegovy, work, explores some of the research and unknowns, and discusses their potential side effects and contraindications. 

Why Sugar Isn’t As Bad As You’ve Been Told
In this Rethinking Wellness podcast episode, registered dietitian Christy Harrison talks with sociologist and Sugar Rush author Karen Throsby about the demonization of sugar despite scientific uncertainty, the connection between anti-sugar sentiment and anti-fat bias, the research behind sugar addiction, and more.

Similar to Christy, I was also trained years ago by my health coaching school to teach people to be hyper-vigilant about sugar. Thankfully, I also changed my ways as I gained a better understanding of the research, diet culture, disordered eating, the harms of binary thinking and food moralism, social determinants of health, and more.

The Burnt Toast Guide to Kids and Sugar
Speaking of sugar, Virginia Sole-Smith recently published this comprehensive guide to kids and sugar, which covers topics like sugar highs and sugar addiction and provides guidance and resources on how to navigate your own and your kids’ relationship with sugar. 

Even if you don’t have kiddos in your life, I think you’ll find much of the information to be helpful.

Eugenicists Shaped the Pathologized Way Many Americans Think About Nutrition Today
In this fascinating and infuriating article, writer and public health dietitian Anjali Prasertong examines the connection between early dietetics and eugenics. 

“The science of modern nutrition was born deeply entwined with the ersatz science of eugenics, a tangle that mixed up morality with food choices, blending ‘eating white’ and ‘eating right.’ And as much as today’s nutrition community would like to distance ourselves from the harmful teachings and practices of [the Progressive Era], many of the ideas about dietary choices and health born during this time are still alive and well.”

What’s the Cultural Significance of a Calorie?
I’ve shared before how counting calories really messed with my head. On this Getting Curious podcast episode, Jonathan Van Ness discusses the history and politics of the calorie with Dr. Athia Choudhury, including how this metric represents so much more than a number on the back of a chip bag.

Last but not least, in case you missed it, in June I shared my summer reading list. I was fortunate to have the time to read every book and highly recommend them all.

To empowering yourself with knowledge!

How I Quit Obsessing About Food—And Got My Life Back.

When I was in college, I went to an aerobics class that was held in the basement of some random office building near campus.

I was able to attend for free in exchange for arriving early to set the room up for class, which meant pushing all the desks, chairs and trashcans out of the way so there was plenty of space for leg kicks and grapevines.

Right next to the building was a tiny cookie shop that baked the most delicious, ginormous cookies. You could smell them baking from blocks away. I was very fond of the double chocolate chip ones.

While sweating away under the fluorescent lights in that low-ceiling makeshift aerobics studio, I fantasized about sinking my teeth into one of those chewy, gooey delights—a big no-no on my fat-free diet.

Distracted by my food fantasies, I was often sidestepping to the right when everyone else was moving to the left. 

A Major Distraction
I can recall many times when my obsession with food, especially my forbidden foods, prevented me from being fully engaged in my life and present for those around me.

I remember being distracted at a bridal shower by the chocolate layer cake I so badly wanted but wouldn’t let myself have because it would have blown my calorie count for the day.

I spent numerous work meetings preoccupied with the muffins and bagels on the conference table that were off-limits because they didn’t fit into my idea of a healthy diet.

At parties, I barely recalled conversations with friends because my mind was on the pizza box, cheese platter, chip bowl or brownie plate—all “illegal” foods.

Constant State of Deprivation
I thought about food ALL THE TIME. It consumed my life.

Back then, I didn’t understand that the reason I spent so much time, energy and headspace thinking about food was because I was living in a constant state of deprivation.

As a result of all my food rules and restrictions, I incessantly thought about what I could eat, should eat, shouldn’t eat and really wanted to eat.

Unconditional Permission to Eat
When I finally stopped trying to micromanage my diet and force my body to be a size it was never meant to be, my preoccupation with food eventually went away (along with many of the other harmful side effects of dieting).

By slowly learning how to eat intuitively, which included giving myself unconditional permission to eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, food took a balanced place in my life.

When my deprivation ended, my obsession ended.

The intensity, anxiety, stress and shame I once experienced with food were replaced with a sense of ease, peace, expansiveness and freedom.

Of course, none of this happened overnight. It took time for me to break up with diet culture, ditch my food rules and trust my body again. Instead of putting all my time and energy into depriving myself, I put it into healing my disordered eating. 

As a result, I opened up so much more space in my life for far more important, meaningful and fun things than obsessing about food. 

I Inhaled the Snack Mix. My Eating Felt Out of Control.

A few days ago, I arrived home early in the evening feeling absolutely ravenous. 

Due to an unexpected delay that afternoon, I wasn't able to eat lunch and my body was screaming for food.

I spotted a container of snack mix my mom and I had recently made on the kitchen counter and thought I’d eat a few handfuls to tide me over until dinner was ready.

Well, one handful quickly turned into multiple handfuls. 

I could not stop eating it. 

In fact, I was shoveling it into my mouth.

My eating felt frenzied, primal, animalistic. 

It felt out of control in a way it hadn’t in a very long time.

Unable to focus on preparing dinner or anything else, like unpacking my bags or changing into my comfy clothes, I hovered over the container as if I was tethered to it and ate as if I would never have access to food again.

Out of Control
In my dieting days, episodes like this happened frequently and I’d chastise myself for being out of control with my eating. 

My diet mentality would have convinced me that I lacked willpower and discipline, that I couldn’t be trusted to have snack mix in the house, that I should just throw the rest away and never make it again.

My internal Food Police would have berated me, telling me how bad I was for eating so much snack mix and that I needed to make up for it by skipping dinner and working out longer the next morning.

Thankfully, this isn’t what happened.

In Survival Mode
I compassionately understood in that moment that I was inhaling the snack mix because my body was trying to get its nourishment needs met.

My ravenous hunger had put me in survival mode. 

In an attempt to keep me alive, my very wise brain was telling me I needed to eat as much as possible as fast as possible. 

Although it felt like it, I wasn’t acting out of control. I was experiencing a natural human response to extreme hunger.

Since I stopped intentionally restricting my food years ago, I rarely get to the point of ravenous hunger these days thus rarely find myself in situations like these. 

Usually, I plan ahead to ensure my body is fully nourished on a regular basis. But sometimes life gets in the way and I’m unable to eat when I need to.

Although it would’ve been more enjoyable to savor the snack mix at a leisurely pace, I’m grateful it was there to quickly satisfy my body’s needs. 

I'm also grateful I was able to just eat it and move on without feeling any guilt, shame, remorse or other unhelpful thoughts and feelings. To me, this is true food freedom.