What’s Wrong With This "Amazing" Weight Loss Story? Everything.

Yesterday, BuzzFeed Life wrote about a recent story on a Web site called The Chive that featured "amazing" stories of dramatic weight loss. Unfortunately, not all of the transformation photos The Chive shared were represented correctly: The image above right (which has since been removed from The Chive's article) is of Anne Marie Sengillo, of Cincinnati, while she was suffering from anorexia. She had posted the photos to Reddit to explain that backsliding can happen during recovery. "My transformation from 150 pounds to 70 and then 90 pounds is not something I want anyone to see and think, ‘Wow! I want to look like her!’" Anne Marie told BuzzFeed Life. "I was very sick."

While this misuse of photos is abominable, this isn't the first time that a woman's photos have been stolen and misrepresented as weight-loss before-and-after shots. Fitness blogger Roni Noone, who lost about 70 pounds by overhauling her lifestyle, had her images stolen by a diet pill company. And the Federal Trade Commission has found several other instances of other weight-loss supplements stealing photos and attributing them to their products. (For help figuring out whether a slim-down product is reputable, check out these tips that a diet aide is too good to be true).

This latest misuse of photos is a good reminder that getting to and staying at a healthy weight is about so much more than looking smaller in one picture than another. If you or someone you know is struggling with their relationship with food, you can find help and support from the National Eating Disorder Association.

RELATED: The Scary Rise in Adult Eating Disorders

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Dietary Lectins: Everything You Need to Know

Very few foods are perfect.

Most of them have both “good” and “bad” aspects.

Lectins are among the “bad” things that are frequently mentioned.

Lectins are a family of proteins found in pretty much all foods, especially legumes and grains.

Frequent consumption of large amounts of lectins has been shown to damage the lining of the digestive system (1).

Some people claim that this causes increased gut permeability and drives autoimmune disease.

It is true that lectins can cause harm, but there is more to the story than we’ve been told. For example, it is easy to get rid of them with the right preparation methods.

Lectins are a diverse family of carbohydrate-binding proteins found in nature. All plants and animals contain them (2).

These proteins play various roles in normal physiological functions, including those of our own bodies.

For example, they help cells and molecules stick to each other, and perform various functions related to the immune system.

Although all foods contain some lectins, only about 30% of the foods we eat contain them in significant amounts (3).

Legumes (including beans, soybeans and peanuts) and grains contain the most lectins, followed by dairy, seafood and plants in the nightshade family.

Their function in plants is not clear, but they may have evolved as a survival mechanism.

Most plants do not want to be eaten, so having these damaging molecules may discourage animals from eating them in large amounts.

Just like other animals, humans are vulnerable to the toxicity of lectins. Concentrated amounts can cause digestive issues and long-term health problems.

In the case of the poison ricin (a lectin from the castor oil plant), they can even cause death.

Bottom Line: Lectins are a family of carbohydrate-binding proteins. They are found in all foods, but the highest amounts are found in legumes and grains.

 

Humans have problems digesting most lectins.

In fact, they are highly resistant to the body’s digestive enzymes, and can easily pass through the stomach unchanged (1).

The “stickiness” of lectins makes them prone to attaching to the intestinal wall.

There, they disrupt the body’s routine maintenance of cells, so the everyday wear-and-tear that occurs in the intestine gradually worsens (4, 5, 6, 7).

This is the main reason why excessive lectin intake causes digestive distress.

The most extensively studied lectins are called phytohemagglutinins, which are mostly found in plants, especially legumes.

Uncooked (raw) legumes like kidney beans are the biggest sources of these lectins.

Eating raw kidney beans can lead to lectin poisoning, the main symptoms of which include severe abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea (8).

However, keep in mind that humans don’t typically eat raw legumes. They are always cooked before consumption.

Bottom Line: Lectins can cause digestive distress in humans. Some lectins, such as the phytohaemagglutinins in raw legumes, can be downright poisonous.

 

Repeated exposure to lectins may eventually damage the gut wall.

Unwanted substances can then more easily penetrate the gut, and may enter the bloodstream.

This condition of increased gut permeability is often called “leaky gut” (9).

When lectins “leak” into the bloodstream, they can interact with glycoproteins on cell surfaces (10).

Lectins can also interact with antibodies, which are a core component of the immune system. This may cause an immune reaction not only against the lectins, but also the body tissues to which the lectins are bound (11).

This type of response is known as an autoimmune reaction, where the immune system mistakenly starts attacking the body’s own structures. This is how lectins may increase the risk of autoimmune diseases (12).

Bottom Line: Repeated exposure to large amounts of lectins may increase gut permeability. Some researchers believe that dietary lectins can raise the risk of autoimmune disease.

Proponents of the paleo diet claim that lectins are harmful.

Due to the lectins (and other anti-nutrients), they say that people should remove legumes and grains from their diet.

 

However, what is often left out of the discussion, is that lectins can be virtually eliminated with cooking.

In fact, boiling legumes in water eliminates almost all lectin activity (13, 14).

While raw red kidney beans contain 20,000 to 70,000 hau (hemagglutinating unit), cooked kidney beans contain only 200-400 hau, a massive drop.

In one study, lectins in soybeans were mostly eliminated when the beans were boiled for only 5 to 10 minutes (15).

It makes no sense to avoid legumes because of lectin activity in raw legumes. People don’t eat raw legumes, they are always cooked first.

Bottom Line: Cooking at high temperatures effectively eliminates lectin activity from foods like legumes, making them perfectly safe to eat.

 

Cooking is not the only way to degrade lectins in foods.

Soaking or sprouting seeds and grains helps to eliminate lectins and other anti-nutrients (16, 17).

Fermenting the foods can also work, by allowing friendly bacteria to digest the anti-nutrients (18, 19, 20).

This is why traditionally prepared whole grains are much healthier. Populations that traditionally ate grains usually treated them first with some form of fermentation.

Grains today may be more problematic because they are no longer prepared like they used to be, and are therefore higher in anti-nutrients.

Bottom Line: Soaking, sprouting and fermenting foods can eliminate lectins and other anti-nutrients, especially from grains.

It is true that dietary lectins are toxic in large doses, but humans don’t eat large doses.

The lectin-rich foods we consume, like grains and legumes, are almost always cooked in some way beforehand.

This leaves only a negligible amount of lectins, making these foods safe to eat for the majority of people.

People with autoimmune or digestive problems may respond well to a diet that excludes most lectins, including those from dairy, eggs and plants of the nightshade family, like potatoes.

However, the amounts in foods are probably way too low for this to be a real concern for otherwise healthy individuals.

Most of these lectin-containing foods are high in vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants and all sorts of beneficial compounds.

The benefits of these healthy nutrients far outweigh the negative effects of trace amounts of lectins.

 

The Gluten-Free Diet: Everything You Need to Know (Literally)

This is a detailed article about the gluten-free diet. What gluten is, who should avoid it, foods to eat and avoid, sample menu and numerous tips.

Gluten-free is all the rage these days.

A 2013 study showed that a whopping 30% of Americans are actively trying to avoid gluten (1).

Although the harmful effects of gluten are controversial among health experts, it is known that several health conditions respond positively to a gluten-free diet (2, 3).

 

Fortunately, there are many healthy and delicious foods that are naturally gluten-free. Avoiding gluten does NOT have to be tasteless or boring.

Gluten is the name of a family of proteins present in grains like wheat, spelt, rye and barley.

There are two main gluten proteins, called gliadin and glutenin. It is the gliadin part that causes the harmful effects (4, 5).

When wheat flour is mixed with water, the gluten proteins form a sticky cross-linking network that has a glue-like consistency (6).

The name glu-ten is derived from this glue-like property. If you’ve ever held wet dough in your hands, then you will know what I’m talking about.

Gluten makes the dough elastic, and gives it the ability to rise during breadmaking. It also tastes good, and provides a chewy, satisfying texture.

 

The most severe form of gluten intolerance is called celiac disease, which affects about 0.7-1% of the population (7).

This serious disease is caused by an autoimmune reaction when the gliadin proteins enter the digestive tract (8).

This can lead to a degenerated gut lining, nutrient deficiencies, severe digestive issues and other serious conditions, many of which are hard to link to digestion (9).

Unfortunately, most people with celiac disease do not know that they have it, as the symptoms can often be vague and difficult to diagnose (10).

Then there is another condition called non-celiac gluten sensitivity. This involves an adverse reaction to gluten in people who do not have celiac disease (3, 11).

There are no good numbers on how common it is, but some estimates place it around 0.5-13% (12). In people with gluten sensitivity, gluten may cause diarrhea, stomach pain, bloating, fatigue, depression and various other symptoms (13, 14).

A gluten-free diet has also been shown to be effective for some cases of schizophrenia, autism and a type of cerebellar ataxia called gluten ataxia (15, 16, 17).

All of this being said, there is currently very little evidence that gluten is harmful for everyone. Many people seem to tolerate it just fine.

There is even evidence that many people with gluten sensitivity are actually sensitive to FODMAPs (a type of carbohydrate in wheat and other foods), not gluten (18).

For these people, a low-FODMAP diet is more appropriate than a gluten-free diet.

The purpose of the gluten-free diet is to completely eliminate gluten from the diet.

 

However, this can be a major challenge, especially considering that gluten-containing ingredients (like wheat) are added to various different foods.

In order to go gluten-free, you need to start reading labels on everything you eat, and may need to make significant changes to the foods you eat from day to day.

If you think you have a serious condition like celiac disease, then please consult with your doctor before going gluten-free, as it may not be possible to diagnose the disease if you’re already avoiding gluten.

 

There are several foods that always contain gluten, and should always be avoided on a gluten-free diet:

Wheat: all forms, including whole wheat, wheat flour, wheat germ and wheat bran.Spelt.Rye.Barley.Einkorn.Triticale.Kamut.Others: Durum flour, farina, graham flour, semolina.

Other foods usually contain gluten, and should be avoided unless specifically labelled “gluten-free,” or made strictly with gluten-free ingredients:

Bread.Pasta.Cereals.Beer.Cakes, pies and pastries.Cookies, crackers, biscuits.Sauces, dressing and gravies, especially soy sauce.

Keep in mind that gluten can be found in all sorts of processed foods. Your best bet is to eat whole, single ingredient foods as much as possible.

Oats generally do not contain gluten, and are well tolerated in people with celiac disease (19).

However, they are sometimes processed in the same facilities as wheat, and may therefore be “cross-contaminated” with gluten (20).

Unless specifically labelled gluten-free, consider avoiding oats if you have celiac disease.

Also keep in mind that certain supplements and medications may contain gluten.

Important: You really MUST read labels. Wheat and other gluten-containing ingredients are found in all sorts of different foods.

There are plenty of healthy and nutritious foods that are naturally gluten free.

 

Here is a list of 50 super healthy foods that you can include in your diet. All of them are gluten-free except no. 36.

A gluten-free diet can be very healthy, as long as you base the diet on real foods.

However, you can also find numerous processed gluten-free replacement products, such as breads, pastries, muffins, cakes, cookies, and others.

 

In most cases, these foods are highly processed and made with sugar and refined grains. These are “empty” calories, and can lead to rapid spikes in blood sugar.

If you don’t really care about health, but simply want to avoid gluten, then you can include these foods in your diet.

For optimal health, however, it is best to choose foods that are naturally gluten-free, not gluten-free products.

Gluten-free junk food is still junk food.

 

You can drink water, coffee and tea on a gluten-free diet.

Fruit juices and sugary drinks are gluten-free, but you may want to avoid/minimize them as they are high in sugar.

Regarding alcohol, beer should be avoided unless labelled gluten-free, but most wines and spirits don’t contain gluten.

This sample menu shows what a week on a gluten-free diet might look like.

You can easily adjust this based on your own preferences.

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and veggies, with a piece of fruit.Lunch: Chicken salad, with some extra virgin olive oil and a handful of nuts.Dinner: Ground beef stir fry, with some veggies. Brown rice on the side.Breakfast: Oatmeal (gluten-free oats) with whole milk and raisins.Lunch: A smoothie with coconut milk, chocolate whey protein powder, berries and almonds.Dinner: Salmon, fried in butter, with salad.Breakfast: Omelet with veggies, and a piece of fruit.Lunch: Leftover salmon from the night before.Dinner: Burgers (no bun), fried in butter, with potatoes.Breakfast: Greek yogurt with sliced fruits and nuts.Lunch: A tuna salad, dressed in olive oil.Dinner: Meatballs with vegetables and brown rice.Breakfast: Eggs and vegetables, fried in coconut oil, with a piece of fruit.Lunch: Leftover meatballs from the night before.Dinner: Steak with vegetables and mashed sweet potatoes.Breakfast: Oatmeal, with a piece of fruit.Lunch: Leftover steak, veggies and sweet potatoes from the night before.Dinner: Baked salmon with butter and vegetables.Breakfast: Bacon and eggs, with some fruit.Lunch: Greek yogurt with berries, sliced fruit, and nuts.Dinner: Grilled chicken wings, with vegetables, salsa and rice.

You can find a list of 101 paleo recipes (that are all gluten-free) here: 101 Paleo Recipes That Taste Incredible.

 

If you find yourself hungry between meals, then here are a few ideas for gluten-free snacks:

A piece of fruit.A handful of nuts.Some yogurt, perhaps with berries mixed in.Rice cakes.Baby carrots.Hard boiled eggs.Leftovers from the night before.

Most restaurants serve gluten-free options.

Just skip the bread and tell the waiter that you’re on a gluten-free diet.

A protein source (meat or fish) with veggies, and a potato or rice on the side, are excellent gluten-free options when you’re eating out.

If you have celiac disease, make it clear to the waiter that you absolutely can not have any gluten, even in trace amounts.

It may be a good idea to check their website or call ahead to ensure that the restaurant you are about to go to has gluten-free options.

 

You can eat a massive variety of foods on a gluten-free diet.

This simple shopping list should help you get started.

Meat: beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, pork, etc.Fish: salmon, trout, sardines, tuna, mackerel, etc.Eggs.Dairy: yogurt, cheese, milk.Frozen vegetables.Fresh vegetables: carrots, peppers, greens, Brussels sprouts, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc.Fruits: Apples, avocado, bananas, pears, oranges.Berries: Strawberries, blueberries.Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, pistachios, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, peanuts.Nut butters: peanut butter and almond butter.Legumes: lentils, beans, kidney beans, chickpeas.Grains: quinoa, buckwheat, rice, corn.Coconut oil.Olive oil.Olives.Butter.Chia seeds.Tubers: Potatoes and Sweet potatoes.Condiments: Sea salt, pepper, turmeric, garlic, parsley, etc.

If you truly want to succeed on a gluten-free diet, then there are many resources available.

A good place to start is going on Amazon and getting one of the gluten-free books. There are also hundreds of gluten-free cookbooks on there.

That being said, this article should contain everything you need to get started. You can use this page to create a printable version of the article.

At the end of the day, a gluten-free diet can be incredibly healthy and satisfying, if done right.

For people with celiac disease or another gluten-related disorder, the benefits can literally be life-saving.

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