What is Reddit's opinion of It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways?

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What kept me going was that the “achy” feeling went away. I didnt not know one of the food groups I eliminated was causing the pain I felt. I thought it was age but turns out it was food.

If you haven’t already, I suggest you read It Starts with Food book, it help me...

I didnt notice a significant weight loss until day 18... I do weight myself everyday and is the only Whole 30 rule I break 😬

So many of us give up on gluten substitutes because they just sit so damned hard on our stomachs. We load up on them in the beginning so we have something when the wheat jones hits, but then we tend to think they aren't worth the effort. So many of us naturally head toward paleo. Actually absorbing nutrients for the first time in a long time makes a nutrient-dense diet like paleo have even more emotional impact. I actually feel like I can breathe easier just eating better food. Check out the Hartwig's book "It Starts With Food."

Jut as a point of reference, if you diminish grain consumption, you lose phytates, which block iron and zinc absorption. Almonds, sesame, dried beans, lentils, peas, cereals, and whole grains all contain phytates. If bread, as an example, is a large part of your diet, this could be a factor in her anemia. Depending upon the person’s diet, phytates can block up to 50% of iron absorption, causing anemia. [Source](www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2820048)

I know you have a lot going on right, and this may not be the priority, but with regards to the anemia, perhaps try an elimination diet to see if it improves her anemia. A good way to check this is to have a blood test taking prior to the diet and then a check up 30 days later. Whole30 is a great elimination diet, which can not only help you reach your weight goals (I personally lost 13 pounds in 30 days, though keep in mind, all results are different), it teaches you so much about food and it’s affects on your body. Check out, It Starts With Food, it’s a great book that can give you a lot of pointers on the affects of food and how to manage your weight without having to constantly count calories or follow strict diet regimens.

And I can already hear the responses, so yes Whole 30 is a strict diet regimen, but the point isn’t to stay on it forever, rather to see how foods affect you. For instance, if you go back on dairy and have no negative effects, then there is no need to eliminate it. But maybe you see some negative effects from pasta or sugar (so many negative effects, felt or not, [check this out](www.iquitsugar.com)). If that’s the case, then you eliminate that. I think a large part of my weight loss was from the lack of sugar consumption and probably the lack of alcohol intake. Anyway, I hope this helps. It’s awesome that you’re working together! It works so much more effectively that way!!

This is a great question. The fact that you’re asking suggests you’re really looking at more than just what to eat, which is important. There are lots of factors to consider when eating. The big one most people miss is the psychology of eating. For instance, if we’re stressed or if we skipped a meal due to work or other activities, we’re much more likely to overeat. So while the physiological methods of the body telling us we’re full is beneficial, trying to balance out how you eat can help you manage your intake. Also consider that if you’re making any change to your diet, it will take time for your body to adapt. I’m a big fan and coach of elimination diets because it teaches not only what is affecting your body negatively, but when you take foods/drinks away*, it gives a much clearer picture of our habits and cravings. It would be my guess that if you’re on a journey to eat more balanced, the best thing you could do is check out It Starts With Food. I’m not saying you should do the program suggested by the author, but there is a lot of really amazing information about how food affects our decision-making process. When you start to understand what your food habits are, what your cravings are, and what is driving you to eat more, then you can begin to build a better path. I always like to say that education is empowerment. It helps you have a why to your health and wellness journey, which can be difficult in our world. I hope this ya been beneficial! Good luck and remember, progress, not perfection.

EDIT: * By take foods away, I mean during the elimination cycle. This doesn’t necessarily mean long term. The point of the elimination is to find out if the food is affecting you positively or negatively. If there are no issues found with a specific food group, then following the elimination diet, you would add that group back in. Again, elimination diets are like science experiments to see what is affecting you. So YOU can make your diet for your body work. It is a temporary process for a much bigger, long term project called your health and wellness journey.

Why is the reason you stop doing it?!

I was never able to complete one until I read their book It Starts With Food. It help me understand why they eliminated the things they did. It helped me commit to the Whole 30. Their published Whole 30 timeline also helps a lot. Go to day 10-11 and you will be amazed.

I once read an article by Melissa where she mentions the Whole 30 is a commitment you do with yourself and you owe it to yourself to complete it.

Sure! When you look at the ingredients, the first few should be fairly recognizable but as you go on, there may be words you're unfamiliar with. Just because your don't recognize a word doesn't mean it's necessarily bad- that not scientific at all. But if you see any of these 56 names for sugar now you'll be able to spot the hidden sugars. Other ways that sugars are often hidden in processed foods is by researching HOW some of the foods we are used to are made. Bacon, for example, is often cured in sugar. So it may seem like a sugar free option but usually, there's some hidden sugar in there. Same with deli meat. And hot dogs. There's a documentary called The Sugar Film (I think?) and they said that roughly 80% of grocery store items have added sugars. If you take the list I linked to and start looking through the stuff on the shelves, it's truly appalling at how many items have sugar by another name.

The World Health Organization says that healthy adults should get no more than 10% of their daily calories from sugar. That's less than 200 calories from sugar for most people. When you factor in all the hidden sugars in processed foods, that doesn't leave much at all for dessert. Linky The WHO also emphatically states that cutting that in half is even better.

The fittest people I know don't eat processed foods. It requires a good deal of planning ahead, food prep, etc. But it is possible to have a truly sugar free diet with careful shopping.

It Starts With Food is my go to for an introduction to basic nutrition. I can't recommend it enough.

Not get all dogmatic but this book literally has changed my perception of food. Highly recommend reading and giving it a try!

It Starts with Food

It Starts With Food is a good read.

I'd say Paleo or some variant. Is there really any need for anyone to eat processed foods.....nope! You would be surprised how much weight drops off just from kicking sugar and bread (grains) to the curb. Yah, it will be hard if your diet revolves around those things.....but seriously, real meats and veggies rule, simple as that.

If you're interested in reading something that will change the way you look at food....even if it only provides some info as to why you shouldnt eat some foods, give this a read! I'm not saying you need to follow the Whole30 plan....but it at least gives some great insight as to why todays foods are bad, and you can make your own decisions from there.