My Snuffleupagus Degree

I have a Masters in Nutrition…or do I?

My partner often remarks that I can’t possibly have a Masters degree in nutrition because I occasionally eat like a lunatic.

Mostly, I eat well and balanced but sometimes (weekly or monthly depending on who’s telling the story) I can be found munching my 101st Malteeser or eating fried chicken like a caveman, grunting and hunched over the kitchen sink.

“There’s only so much quinoa one can eat!” I argue.

I came to the idea of a nutrition degree because of two reasons: a true belief in the therapeutic nature of food and, like most people who study nutrition, my own patterns of disordered eating.

There were signs of an eating disorder through my late teens, and then it was full-blown in university. I was on the anorexic side with what I would call “exercise bulimia” thrown in. Pretty obsessed with the ole bod’, I wanted the six-pack and good leg definition. It helped that I was on the university squash and rowing teams.

Here’s how my day would go at age 20: wake up at 6:15, run 3 miles to the gym. Work out like a beast, run home, walk to school, have first 2-hour lecture with a Diet Coke, and then eat something like a dry bagel and have a coffee. Following afternoon lectures, I would eat some melon and go to squash practice for 2 hours. You can imagine that my cells were starving for macro and micronutrients that by the time I came to dinner, I packed in the food. Then when I was studying into the night I would snack. If I overate snacks, I might go running at 11pm.

Despite this high level of activity, I could not get the six-pack! Well of course not. My fat cells were storing everything they could get in case I was starving again tomorrow. Which I would be.

When I took a year off after university, I worked in Bermuda at a macrobiotic restaurant called Seasons in the Sun. This place was way ahead of its time and served things like szechwan tempeh, butternut squash sandwiches and kukicha tea. I had never heard of half of the food served and learned so much.

During my time working there, I noted a marked increase in energy and my runs were better, cycling was stronger and I was generally in a better mood too! Quitting Diet Coke almost required me to go to rehab, but I did it. There was also a hint of a six-pack visible.

I then went off to dental school in the UK where my diet went, not only back to a student-like one, but a UK student at that! Let’s just say a pint and chips was a typical lunch. Things went very much backwards. I got sick more, my energy was terrible and after days of cadaver anatomy lab, I literally felt toxic.

All of these happenings were nudging me towards my next steps in development. Once I landed at Bastyr where the quinoa and kale dominated most meals, I began to feel better. And then, me being me, I went off the deep end with all of the diets!

I was vegetarian. Then vegan. Then macrobiotic. All for months at a time.

Eventually I settled on a whole foods diet with no red meat. I drank tons of water, no coffee, only green tea. Despite what I thought was a perfect diet, made up of millet, kale daily, seaweeds, plenty of other fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds and a little bit of salmon, I was pale, tired all the time and was suffering from anxiety.

When I went to the doctor finally, it was found that I had extremely low iron stores and free iron- in other words I was very anemic. She said I needed a steak once per week in addition to major iron supplementation. I will report that the doctor’s-order-steak I had that night was the best thing I’d ever eaten!

Most of my student friends were some version of extreme vegetarian or vegan but it was actually my Chinese Medicine professors, not nutrition, who helped me to find moderation in my eating habits. Dr. Cao was consistently poking fun at “all these weegans”. He thought these limiting diets and the overindulgence in kale were ridiculous and drilled it into us that we needed to eat some animal proteins, a variety of vegetables and to stop drinking so much water.

“Eat complicated” he said, meaning to eat differently every day for maximum nutrition. He also laughed at how much water we all drank. “You’re all drowning! We have enough rain in Seattle so stop drowning your insides too!”

Slowly my Chinese Medicine colleagues started coming out of veganism and adding some animal protein to their diets. We all felt better, had less cravings for sugar and caffeine. We slept better. Energetically, animal protein in small amounts (5 ounces) has a grounding effect and so over the years I would have to have “the talk” with vegetarians who come in with anxiety and anemia. It usually doesn’t go super well.

The chat with the “raw foodies” goes even worse! Not only does Chinese Medicine believe that animal meat is important, it also believes that most things should be cooked or steamed for optimal digestion and absorption. Typically the raw folks have the capacity for eating raw or their body would let them know. A sign that the digestive system is being taxed is frequent bouts of diarrhea or loose stool.

Over the years, I have pondered the basis for digestion and absorption. As a good Irish girl, I had been raised on meat and potatoes. Perhaps when our gut develops with certain foods and if we veer from them, we are unable to meet our nutritional requirements. So it could be hypothesized that if someone was raised from birth as a vegetarian, they will never need to add meat.

The concept of drinking too much water was also something that stayed with me. The first issue is the effect on the Qi of the kidneys- for some people over-drinking water can deplete kidney function in Chinese Medicine theory. The second factor is that water, particularly cold or ice water, dilutes the stomach acid thereby making it harder to digest proteins. Digestion is a “warm process” in Chinese Medicine, so when we sit down at a restaurant for a meal and the first thing they give is a huge glass of ice water, it is no wonder that we have a population of people with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome)! A small glass of room temperature water, or a cup of hot water with lemon should suffice. This small step would improve digestion tremendously!

I also learned the benefit of chewing 25 times per bite. Digestion starts in the mouth and the more we chew, the more enzymes can start breaking down food for optimal absorption of nutrients. Of course, we all know that eating on the run and eating fast food is no bueno (this includes inhaling fried chicken over the sink). Food is meant to be enjoyed and another contributor of good longevity is long, fun meals with family and friends.

I used to believe that diet was everything.

Not any more. It is a piece of the puzzle, but large studies in longevity find it surprisingly quite low on the list! So I think what I have learned with all of my study and subsequent experimentation on my own body is…the very boring answer…moderation.

Eat 80% well. Eat a lot of vegetables. Eat with friends and family. Laugh. Chew your food. Savour. Don’t drink freezing cold water with meals. And occasionally, eat fried chicken like a caveman, grunting and hunched over the kitchen sink.

Photo lazerhorse.org