Diet Rules: In Response to the Diet Pill Disaster

Imagine the disappointment!

Didn’t you want to believe it? “Finally, a diet pill I can endorse! Check out this link”, with yours truly as the sender. Yes, my Twitter account was hacked, or hijacked, as they say. Someone managed to get into my account dispensing a bunch of tweets as if they had come from me. And this was just one of the creative gems they sent. 

Now, if you have been reading Drop It And Eat for a while, I suspect you were a bit skeptical. And hopefully, you even had the wisdom to stop yourself from clicking and perpetuating the myth.

Maybe you even believed it, but knew it would be trouble, a slippery slope, getting into diet pills. You knew it was too good to be true.

Perhaps you feel addicted to hope—hope for a solution to your daily eating struggle—for assistance with binge eating, obesity, or body dissatisfaction, in spite of a normal body size. Yes, at times a pill may seem like the only answer.

But, dear readers, there are no pills, no magic bullets. Never mind meds; there is no quick fix, no special diet to cure our ills, I’m so sorry to say.

How ironic that this violation of my name and of my Followers came when I was vacationing, reveling in the beauty of Acadia National Park with its stunning vistas, by foot and by cycle. And while enjoying the fabulous bakeries, the flavorful oils and vinegars and local restaurant cuisine. And no, I didn’t enjoy the muffins and scones solely on my active days when I was burning it off; I even enjoyed them at breakfast, before the almost 6 hour drive home, sitting on my butt.

How does this fit with good health, you may be wondering? What kind of dietitian are you, endorsing pastries and other indulgences?

I often find myself defending my approach to eating and to weight management and disease prevention to others—to strangers wondering why I’m photographing their lovely loaves, to friends who question my aversion to seemingly healthy fat free foods, even to patients and Followers who wonder if I really practice what I preach. So I thought I’d share a few thoughts following my 5-day vacation in Maine.

Yes, it's all about balance.

A truly healthy diet:

• is a way of eating that promotes both physical and psychological wellbeing.

• indulges the senses with the pleasure of quality—flavors, textures, smells, experiences.

• involves selecting foods that may be rich, such as the fabulous baked goods from Little Notch Bakery—and enjoying them when hungry (but not so hungry that you can’t savor the flavors and enjoy the food).

• allows for pastries, and chocolates, and cheeses as snacks or as part of a meal, not as a reward for eating a “healthy” meal. Tuesday, it meant blueberry pie mid-morning, after a lovely bike ride. Wednesday, it included blueberry scones (yes, wild Maine blueberries are in season), a chocolate croissant and delectable carrot muffins at breakfast. Monday, it meant a shared apple tartlet as an afternoon snack.

Thanks for helping to make my vacation fabulous! 

• means eating just as much as we need, and trusting that we could always get to the bakery again for another great purchase. Yes, I hit up Little Notch Bakery three times over my 5-day vacation in Acadia—once in each area of the island.

• also means bypassing fat free spreads on my toast—because I don’t like their taste—and dipping my sourdough, white flour bread in olive oil instead. It entails selecting oils with intense aromas, fabulous flavors and nutritional benefits, like those found at Fiore in Bar Harbor.

• means choosing a lighter entrée, at times, because I prefer a less dense dinner after my day of snacking. So it was poached salmon (still a high fat fish, I might add), but in a lighter prep than the other options available.

• means having what I really want, but eating only as much as I truly need. I was in charge of cutting up the baked goods, served on a platter in bite size pieces for 5 of us to share.

I chose the middle one. What a crust!

I’m not kvetching today, post vacation, about my week’s intake; I enjoyed every minute of it. I did not need to go crazy with my eating simply because I was on vacation, because quite frankly, eating like this is totally normal for me. I eat this way all the time. I buy great breads weekly (if I haven’t made my own with the help of a bread machine), I enjoy delicious cheeses (but am mindful of the portions) and I have my share of baked goods (and clearly you’ve already learned of my love of chocolate!). Really. Just ask my friends and family. But I pass on anything sub par, because I truly want to enjoy what I put in my mouth. I take my food pretty seriously.

Tags from a line of women's clothing. Great, no?

Does this eating approach seem foreign to you? Trust me, there is still hope for change. It takes time to learn that you are allowed to enjoy good food, great tasting, quality food. Yes, whether you are overweight, normal weight or underweight you are entitled to the pleasure of eating whatever you would like. Just be sure to eat the amount that’s right for your body.

That is a truly healthy diet.