Have You Reached Peak Diet?

No-one can argue that kale is not good for you, but try to survive on a kale-only diet and you’ll live a miserable and emaciated existence.

The key to happiness does not lie in the leaves of a cruciferous vegetable.

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This, on a wider scale, is where the obsession with healthy food – rather than a healthy diet – becomes physically destructive. As the list of foods you can eat gets shorter, as your diet becomes more restricted and your rules more devoutly observed, you miss out on essential nutrients your body requires in order to be truly healthy.

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THE RESTRICTIVE EATER
Thomas Grainger, 21, Student
“When I was younger I was overweight. I absorbed as much information as I could about healthy eating and exercise, and I managed to lose the weight. But I found that I started to become obsessive. I restricted anything that I believed caused inflammation in the body. So I had no sugar, no gluten, no dairy. I used to actually refer to them as poisons.

If I knew that I was going to be around food like that, I would pre-eat, or eat afterwards. My list of restrictions grew longer and I started to get very anxious around food.

“The only time I was comfortable was when I was cooking on my own. Even shopping became exhausting, as I’d read the labels on everything to check there were no added sugars, genetically modified ingredients or plant-based oils. I would try to force these ideas on other people as well. Eventually, they didn’t want to cook for me because they thought that I’d judge them. I became the ‘health freak’ guy.

“My weight kept dropping. I started to develop actual health complications. I was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease. My body just couldn’t cope with the stress I was putting it under. It was only when I made the decision to eat more flexibly that I managed finally to find a truly healthy diet.”

THE SELF-FLAGELLATOR
Jamie Millar, 31 Men’s Health writer
“It was in the second year of uni, when I moved into a rented house, that I became entirely responsible for feeding myself. For the first time I had full control over my diet; I could make it ‘optimal’. So I started getting anal with portion control, counting kilojoules and weighing out carbs. I lost body fat; I also lost power on the football pitch. There’s a photo of me on Facebook in fancy dress as Bruce Lee and you can count my ribs.

Eventually I put weight back on, but only because I was unhappy with how I looked. It took my first serious relationship, with my now wife, to make me realise that eating, say, a can of tuna mixed with sweetcorn for dinner is not healthy, whatever its macros.

“Even now, I tend to mentally lump days into ‘good’ and ‘bad’. If just one lapse of willpower turns the former into the latter then all bets are off until tomorrow, when I’ll wake up feeling guilty – and probably early, so I can train it off. But with my wife’s help I’ve become more relaxed. I’m happier in myself, and with my appearance. And I’ve at least figured out not to ask how many grams of rice she’s cooked. I’m still learning.”

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THE PALEO DIETER
Adib Bamieh, 34 Director, Pure Taste Restaurant
“I switched to the paleo diet five years ago. I’d spent 30 years having crap sleep, feeling uncomfortable all the time and just assuming it was normal. I went sugar, gluten and dairy free, and within six months everything got better. Once I saw the results, I started to push myself physically. I got to the point where I was netting minus 2100 kilojoules a day with the amount of exercise I was doing compared to the food I was consuming, and it all got out of hand.

“I was working in the CBD at the time. There was a big drinking culture. I stopped getting involved and I felt a considerable amount of pressure, that I was in some way disrespecting people. I used to lie and either say that I was driving so I couldn’t have alcohol, or that I was on a certain medication – anything to try and circumvent the conversation. At business conferences that served sandwiches, sausage rolls, scotch eggs, I would just not eat. I’d take snacks, or very occasionally I’d go hungry.

“I became aware that I was becoming obsessed, and that I had to correct it all. I’m still paleo – I run a paleo restaurant – but I’m less strict with myself than I used to be. I genuinely enjoy food. I went to Milan a couple of weeks ago and I had some pasta and a couple of pizzas. Because as long as you’re not slamming your body with toxins all the time, then it can cope. You just need to make sure you’re getting it right 80-85 per cent of the time.”

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