The ‘Whole 30’: Dieters Eliminate Certain Foods to Shed Pounds.
They’ve been coming for years. Diets and exercise routines that claim to revolutionize your life. Some people swear by the diets and routines, but critics often find the negative aspects of these programs, including misrepresentation, lack of science, or low chance of practical application. Registered Dietician Lisa Drayer says that diets that eliminate whole food groups might help you lose weight, but the weight is likely to return. Drayer also says the nutrition is not sound because important nutrients and antioxidants go missing.
Dallas Hartwig and Melissa Hartwig of Whole30 say no important nutrients are missing during the restricted diet period. However, Whole30 and the Hartwigs claim that certain food groups (like sugar, grains, dairy and legumes) could be having a negative impact on your health and fitness.
The Whole30 website lists signs that might mean certain foods types may be causing the negative impact …
Energy levels inconsistent or non-existent
Aches and pains that can’t be explained by over-use or injury
Having a difficult time losing weight
Aggravating medical conditions, such as skin issues, digestive ailments, seasonal allergies or fertility issues, that medication hasn’t helped
Whole30 reports the “symptoms may be directly related to the foods you eat – even the “healthy” stuff.”
So how do you know if (and how) these foods are affecting you?
The experts at Whole30 claim you eliminate food that is psychologically unhealthy, hormone-unbalancing, gut-disrupting, inflammatory food groups for a full 30 days.
The program rules of “NO” are found here …
whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/
No: Avoid for 30 days.
There is a list of what NOT to eat during the duration of your Whole30 program to “reset” you metabolic response and possibly ongoing systemic inflammation. Whole30 says that omitting “all of these foods and beverages” will help you regain your healthy metabolism, reduce systemic inflammation, and help you discover how these foods are truly impacting your health, fitness and quality of life.
Here are the rules that they say require adherence for 30 days …
Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, coconut sugar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels, because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.
Do not consume alcohol in any form, not even for cooking. (And it should go without saying, but no tobacco products of any sort, either.)
Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on. Again, read your labels.
Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).
Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat or sheep’s milk products such as cream, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream… with the exception of clarified butter or ghee.Do not eat white potatoes. This is somewhat arbitrary, but if we are trying to change your habits (chips and fries) and improve the hormonal impact of your food choices, it’s best to leave white, red, purple, Yukon gold, and fingerling potatoes off your plate.
Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30.
No Paleo-ifying baked goods, desserts, or junk foods. Trying to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold will ruin your program faster than you can say “Paleo Pop-Tarts.” This means no desserts or junk food made with “approved” ingredients—no banana-egg pancakes, almond-flour muffins, flourless brownies, or coconut milk ice cream. Don’t try to replicate junk food during your 30 days! That misses the point of the Whole30 entirely.One last and final rule: You are not allowed to step on the scale or take any body measurements for the duration of the program. This is about so much more than just weight loss, and to focus on your body composition means you’ll miss out on the most dramatic and lifelong benefits this plan has to offer. So, no weighing yourself, analyzing body fat or taking comparative measurements during your Whole30. (We do encourage you to weigh yourself before and after, however, so you can see one of the more tangible results of your efforts when your program is over.)
When making a “lifechange” people need to be careful not to act to the extreme in all aspects. Just because your metabolism is ready for reset, it doesn’t mean your joints are ready for full range of motion reset. A person working on a “lifechange” tends to be frustrated, and may overcompensate in the exercise arena.
Julie Hallama sounds positive, but from the looks of some of her exercises, if she’s not naturally resistant to orthopedics stress or hasn’t been properly trained, her joints might not be feeling all that great in the long run. Her modified pull-up at 00:30 puts a lot of ballistic flexion and extension on the low back area. That could mean back trouble for some people, especially if their core muscles (e.g., abdominal muscles) are not adapted to control the ballistic motion safely. Trainers help people understand the internal forces that are magnified, especially during ballistic exercise.
Her Kettlebell exercises at 1:14 also ballistically stress the low back with flexion and extension moves. And the overhead move hyperflexes the shoulder joint while bearing a weight load. That could spell future trouble for the low back and the shoulders of some people. Kettlebell exercise can also cause repetitive trauma near the wrist joint.
Her squats with the medicine ball toss at 1:18 hyperflex and bottom out her knees ballistically. The knees can take a banging while her neck is hyperextended (head tilted back). For some people, the knees can develop overuse injuries, and the spine gets a shock wave from the hips to the neck that could accelerate disc degeneration in the spinal column. Again, it’s best to have a personal trainer that properly advises clients about coordination of forces to avoid degenerative changes of the knee joint, such as patellar femoral syndrome, chondromalacia, osteoarthritis and osteochondritis. If trainers offer instrucitons about getting power from extension of the hips more than extension of the knees, then they are probably on the right track.
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