Join Dr. Sarah on her Science Strolls and learn more about the Nutrivore Philosophy!
The concept of Nutrivore is very simple: Choose foods such that the total of all the nutrients contained within those foods adds up to meet or exceed our daily requirements for the full complement of essential and nonessential (but still very important) nutrients, while also staying within our caloric requirements. The easiest way to do this is to have the foundation of the diet be a wide variety of nutrient-dense whole and minimally-processed foods including selections from all of the nutritionally distinct food families.
I Was a Part of the Problem!
The reason I care so much about busting food phobic myths on the internet is because I used to buy into them, and worse, spread them, because I truly believed what I was saying at the time. I fell prey to pseudoscience, buying into logical sounding explanations based on the negative impact of one compound in a food. But when you know better, you do better. I’ve been working to deprogram myself from all the diet culture messages I bought into for the last few years. It’s been hard work and I’m working to correct the record by putting out rigorously researched and cited accurate information representing scientific consensus. I care so much about fixing the problem of food and diet misinformation that contribute to eating disorders, perpetuated through social media because I used to contribute to it. That’s why there is always scientific citations in all of my work and why the articles on Nutrivore.com are so in depth. It’s hard to admit that you’re wrong, which is why I think there are a lot of creators doubling down on erroneous information instead of challenging their beliefs about food rules and diet mentality. The sad fact is those creators are rewarded for continuing to fear monger. Fear reaches more people, fear sells more products, and programs and also takes a lot less work! If you’re interested in finally ditching food fear, come on this journey with me. It’s a lot harder work to spread good information than misinformation, but that’s my mission! My goal is to help people eliminate disordered eating and achieve overall well-being, both in terms of body positivity and mental health.
How I Learned and Unlearned Food Fears
How did I get things so wrong in the first place? At the time I was entering the wellness community, I had what I viewed as success following a restrictive diet and that made me adamant that it was the best way to eat (spoiler alert – it wasn’t!). I learned to think about food “toxins” from scientists and doctors. I believed if you could identify a compound in a food that is problematic for one biological system, you should then write off that entire food as problematic for the entire body. There’s a problem with that line of thinking. Just because one compound in a food is harmful in one specific circumstance, does not meat the whole food is bad for the whole us. You need to look at scientific studies that evaluate the consumption of the entire food, not animal and cell culture studies looking at the isolated compound. Every single food is going to have one compound in it that’s not good. What we need to know is if that’s compensated for by the wealth of other nutrients in that food. It’s taken years for me to unlearn this way of thinking, and deprogram all of the food moral value judgments I made through that way of thinking. It’s been hard work to eliminate these disordered eating behaviors and the hardest part is admitting you were wrong, which I was, about a lot of it but that’s my origin story. There wasn’t one eureka moment that made me realize how wrong that way of thinking was but the reality is that it was years of slowly expanding the criteria I use for evaluating foods, and building something new with Nutrivore. Now as I look back I can see that I was part of the problem, which means I’m extra committed to being part of the solution, and the fact is you don’t need to be afraid of your food choices.
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How I Went From Restriction to Permission
How did I transition from spreading food fear on the internet and embracing restrictive dietary patterns, to busting food fear mongering myths online and creating content about all the different benefits we can get from foods, embracing a permissive dietary structure? It was a long, iterative, grueling process. It started with writing a book about the gut microbiome over the course of 7 years. The first few years I was applying all of my biases to the project until I hit a critical accumulation of knowledge about the gut microbiome that made me decide 3 or 4 years into the project to scrap everything I had written and start from scratch. It was the right thing to do but it felt terrible because of all the work I had to throw out. As part of the reorganization of the entire concept of this gut microbiome book I made a rule for myself that I would write the book outside of any dietary structure and any preconceived notions I had about whether or not a food was good or bad. It’s one of the most important decisions I’ve ever made! Over the next few years, researching and writing this book continued to reveal things I was wrong about, foods that have a really meaningful benefit to our health because of how they impact the gut microbiome, which happened to be foods I wasn’t eating at the time so I started adding those foods back in and I started feeling better. At the same time I was expanding my diet and my views of foods I was watching the rise of ever more restrictive dietary patterns in the wellness community and as I was researching the impact of nutrient-density on the gut microbiome I was realizing that these restrictive diets were magnifying a problem that already exists (i.e. most people aren’t getting all of the nutrients they need from the foods they eat). That got me starting to think about ways to teach people about nutrients and what foods contain them and how to combine foods to meet your nutritional needs, which eventually became Nutrivore. As I started building all of the groundwork for Nutrivore, I was continually confronted with the necessity to reevaluate moral value judgments that I had about foods until I realized I needed to ditch all moral judgments about food, even ultra-processed foods. That brought me back to the drawing board to reevaluate my thoughts on anti-nutrients and food toxins, looking at that research with a broader lens. It’s been difficult realizing how many things I got wrong and spread but with self-compassion, that realization has also been the most centering influence I could have for building Nutrivore!
Healing My Relationship With Food
I’ve been working for several years to heal my relationship with food, which has involved facing my food fears, and doing thousands of hours of research, re-examining the science on how foods interact with our health, and understanding where I was wrong before and admitting it. That’s why I create the content I create, to help you unlearn the food fears you may have learned through diet culture and see foods in a positive light, by understanding what different foods have to offer health-wise and appreciate the nutrients they contain.
It’s really hard to have an open mind to new information that challenges our preconceived notions and beliefs. Thank-you for having an open mind to learn new information that contradicts something that you thought was true. This is how we collectively get out of this cultural moment we’re in where food fear mongering is so loud and spread so easily and motivates sales. If we want to have a meaningful impact on public health, by helping people improve diet quality, the most important thing we can do is graduate beyond restrictive mindsets and evolve beyond food fears to heal all of our collective relationships with food.
Everything You Need to Jump into Nutrivore TODAY!
Nutrivore Quickstart Guide
The Nutrivore Quickstart Guide e-book explains why and how to eat a Nutrivore diet, introduces the Nutrivore Score, gives a comprehensive tour of the full range of essential and important nutrients!
Plus, you’ll find the Top 100 Nutrivore Score Foods, analysis of food groups, practical tips to increase the nutrient density of your diet, and look-up tables for the Nutrivore Score of over 700 foods.
Buy now for instant digital access.
Do Fear Mongers Know They Are Wrong?
Do people spreading food fear on the internet know they are wrong? I didn’t when I did it. It made sense to me because I learned that way of thinking from scientists and doctors in the wellness community. When you’re in that community and your biases are being reinforced by everyone around you, you think you’re right. The biggest lesson I learned was to get out of the bubble of conformation bias. It helped me see with clarity how flawed food “toxin” logic is.
I’m sure there are some disingenuous creators out there who know they are wrong and are still selling fear about foods for profit but I think the vast majority are like I was. That’s no excuse, but I think that’s why I am now so committed to busting food fear myths and reframing foods in terms of the positives we can gain from them and sharing the information with you, so that you no longer buy into diet dogma and can have food freedom.
Leaving Room for a Redemption Arc
It’s important for those of us in the health and wellness space who follow the science, and lead with reason, moderation and balance, helping people to get beyond their fears, to support the redemption arc of wellness influencers who are rebranding away from fear-based messaging. Fear sells and outrage is what algorithms like. The promise of weight loss, and that all of your physical health dreams will come true if you just cut out certain things is alluring. Right now there are a lot of people in the wellness community whose livelihood is reliant on continuing to spread messages of fear, restriction and outrage. I won’t pretend that transitioning out of that restrictive mindset to creating content that alleviates food fears, didn’t cause my business to take a hit. In fact, this might be a reason holding a lot of wellness influencers back from rebranding, having their own redemption arc and saying publicly that they were wrong and here’s where the preponderance of scientific evidence currently lies. When I say we need to leave room for a redemption arc, I mean a few things. The end goal is to help the average person hear that new evidence-based message based in reason and not fear, even if they previously believed it. To create room in people’s heads for new information that contradicts what they held to be true, especially from the people they originally learned what turned out to be misinformation from. Those of us who have had our redemption arcs or who have always railed against misinformation, need to encourage, and support and celebrate that transition. I wouldn’t be in the position of building Nutrivore if I didn’t have people celebrating my redemption arc. As a consumer, if you are able to support reason-based science backed information, instead of fear-based marketing, you will create an incentive structure for people who are afraid to stop spreading fear. If they can see other people make that transition successfully, it will allow them the space for challenging their own beliefs. The pendulum of fear and restriction has swung as far as it possibly can and content marketing based in reason and science and balanced mindset is the future.
Learn What Foods Are the Best Sources of Every Nutrient
The Top 25 Foods for Every Nutrient
The Top 25 Foods for Every Nutrient e-book is a well-organized, easy-to-use guide to help you choose foods that fit your needs of 42 important nutrients while creating a balanced nutrient-dense diet.
Get two “Top 25” food lists for each nutrient, plus you’ll find RDA charts for everyone, informative visuals, fun facts, serving sizes and the 43 foods that are Nutrient Super Stars!
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What Foods Are Best to Limit?
