Dieting, repackaged

2nd July 2009

posted in Personal |

Self magazine isn’t known for embracing body diversity, so I was semi-surprised to see the oh, so cleverly titled Self piece “Sip ‘n Starve: Dangerous diets in disguise” republished on MSNBC today. Authored by Janelle Brown, who used to run the feminist ‘zine Maxi in the 1990s, the focus is on LA trendsetters who “starve themselves skinny” via “socially acceptable quasi-anorexia.” A marketing survey last summer found that the percentage of American adults on a diet has decreased by 10 percent since 1990, but those numbers might be disingenuous. As Brown explains, it’s no longer trendy to be dieting, at least for women in LA, but that doesn’t mean that they’ve abandoned their zeal to fit into negative number sizes, either. She writes:

Even in this city, if you go on too many diets, your friends will start to think that you’re vain, have an eating disorder or are just plain annoying. As a result, women here are — superficially, anyway — forswearing dieting and embracing a new euphemism for it: cleansing. Sure, you’re still expected to fit into those size 00 jeans, but instead of just being super skinny, now you’re supposed to be skinny and healthy.

To reach this contradictory healthy-skinny ideal, L.A. ladies have developed some disordered techniques that cross old-school self-starvation with New Age mind-body rhetoric. And these techniques will probably land in your town soon — if they haven’t already.

Stanley Burroughs - Master Cleanse I’m kind of baffled by Brown’s treatment of fasting for weight-loss as something new. Newly-trendy, maybe, but it’s certainly nothing new. Women have fasted for centuries in the pursuit of the Gospel of Thinness. The Master Cleanse — perhaps the most popular crash cleansing scam in which a person drinks nothing but a tasty, I’m sure, concoction of fresh lemon or lime juice, maple syrup, water and Cayenne pepper — has been around since 1941. Stanley Burroughs, it’s creator, originally called it the “Lemonade Diet,” but he didn’t intend for it to be used as a “diet” in the modern sense of the word in that weight-loss is the primary goal. Burroughs was a naturopath and first devised the concoction as a way to heal stomach ulcers. Indeed, much of his 1941 book, The Master Cleanser, is devoted not to the “diet” itself, but rather to a discussion of the ways in which toxins affect the body. The state of California saw things a bit differently, however. In 1984, Burroughs was convicted of second-degree felony murder, felony practicing medicine without a license, and unlawful sale of cancer treatments after a men he was treating for cancer died as the result of his “cure” treatment, which consisted of drinking his Master Cleanse lemonade for 30 days and massage therapy. The murder conviction was later overturned and Burroughs was released after spending several years in prison. He died in 1991.

The Master Cleanse became a popular weight-loss tool after Peter Glickman, then an overstressed software company executive, stumbled across Burrough’s plan and adopted it for himself along with a raw food diet. Despite the fact that he readily admits that he is not a licensed health professional of any kind, Glickman nonetheless began instructing others in the weight-loss “benefits” of the plan and savvily marketed the Master Cleanse into Master Profits with the 2004 publication of a weight-loss book. Most doctors, even well-known celebrity “diet doctors,” don’t recommend the Master Cleanse and say that it is unhealthy, but that hasn’t stopped hordes of celebrities and other aspiring weight-losers from trying it anyway.

Brown devotes much of the article’s attention to the dangerous outcomes to crash cleansing — potential enema dependence, a weakened immune system and organ failure are just a few of the side effects. Cleanse dieters often try to make up for the supplements they lack in food with herbal teas, supplements, and other so-called natural products which only exacerbate the dangers of cleansing. According to Arthur Frank, M.D., medical director of the George Washington University Weight Management Program in Washington, D.C: “These supplements probably have no value — the best you can hope for is that they won’t harm you.” The FDA recently issued warnings for more than 70 weight-loss supplements after they were found to contain hidden and potentially harmful drugs.

There are those who might say that any risk, even death, is preferable to being fat but it isn’t even as if cleanse dieting works. The shift from a liquid diet to a diet of real food causes the body to cling even more stubbornly to calories than before in anticipation of the next famine, thus setting the stage for weight regain. Nonetheless, weight-loss fasting has become popular in part, because as Brown notes, it eliminates the “media minefield of ever-changing ‘good’ and ‘bad foods because, natch, you’re not eating anything at all.” This might sound absurd to otherwise sane people, but it resonated with me — it’s one of the very reasons why I stopped eating altogether during my eating disorder. It was far easier to simply not eat at all than to do mental calisthenics involving the complex caloric calculations and categorizations of food into “safe” and “unsafe” food groups. And as Weight Watchers so cleverly discovered, the word “diet” is so last year. Touting one’s diet as a “health plan” not only detracts from any suspicion of disordered eating, it’s also more socially acceptable and culturally admired than admitting your real motivation is just to fit into those skinny pants in the back of your closet. The skillful repackaging, Brown notes:

…goes down particularly well in Hollywood, a town where celebrities profess their love for french fries while secretly purging to stay wafer-thin, where everyone pretends to be inherently slim — and where half the women interviewed for this article begged to remain anonymous because they didn’t want anyone to think they had weight issues. Admitting you’re on a diet these days somehow means you’re weak.

Surprisingly for Self, the article ends on a body-positive note with the anecdote of Milne, a former Master Cleanser who had a serious health wake-up call after endless cycles of weight loss and regain. The now U.S. size 8-10 public relations rep finally realized:

“I’m not perfect. Sometimes nothing quite beats the blues like a Big Mac,” Milne laughs. “But I’ve been that skinny size 4, and I hated myself more than when I was more than 200 pounds. I was so wrapped up in self-image, but now I recognize a huge part of being happy is accepting my body the way it is.”

I’m not entirely opposed to fasting even thought it was fasting that accelerated my descent into anorexia. Don’t get me wrong — I no longer fast because I find it dangerously seductive and triggering. The last time I fasted was for three days a couple months before I met my husband four years ago and it was more so to see if I could still do it. But I soon realized that it’s not that I can’t do it; it’s that I can’t stop it. It was early in my disorder when I stumbled across one of those alternative health sites that promotes fasting for health and decided to give it a try. I didn’t ease into fasting with any kind of hippie wheat germ and carrot juicing; I drank water and only water. In time, the fasts grew longer, four days here, eight there, and then the longest, 12 days. I even chewed the same piece of sugar-free gum those last two weeks because I was afraid of consuming even the >5 calories in each stick. People who’ve never experienced such insanity sometimes look at me with a mixture of awe and amazement when I tell them this, but physically, fasting isn’t that difficult. The hunger pains disappear after a few days and you feel strangely more alert and energetic than before — the feeling, of course, is short-lived as the body begins to break down. Fasting is more of a mental challenge than it is a physical one. Food becomes an object of obsession; it consumes your focus and devours your waking thoughts. You even dream of food, of buffet tables heaped high with a cornucopia of delights. That is, until muscle spasms from potassium deficiency shatter the revelry and leave you screaming in pain.

Many people, especially Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims, incorporate fasting into their spiritual beliefs and believe that it gives them a heightened sense of self-awareness and a more intimate connection with god or nature. It was fasting, in fact, that led to the Buddha’s spiritual awakening, but not in the way you might expect. As legend has it, in his search for mahabodhi, or a great awakening, the Buddha left his affluent life and made his way through the Himalayas, seeking out teachers and practices that would help him achieve the end of suffering. Believing desire to be the root of all despair, the Buddha thought that if he stopped eating, he could achieve this fabled liberation and so he ate only a grain of rice and a sesame seed per day. In time, he got so thin that it was said you could touch his spine by pressing on his stomach. Not so surprisingly, he found that he no longer had the strength to meditate and realized that only by eating and regaining his strength could he ever realize Buddhahood.

Part of the ways in which I judge my recovery is in my ability to read an article such as Brown’s and not go out immediately and stock up on lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper with feverish abandon. The road to recovery is different for everyone, but for me, I know I’ve arrived when instead I think of the incredibly sad and desperate forces that lead women to believe that hope can be sipped through a straw.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On July 2nd, 2009, Jen

said:

I’d been considering a cleanse/fast of some kind for a while now but I think my mind just changed to completely against it. Thank you for this post and link to the article.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 3:34 pm

2 On July 2nd, 2009, Rachel2

A very poignant examination of this issue, Rachel.

As I pursue my own road to recovery, I see things like this reminiscent of my own battles. Previous walls, if you will, and I feel a sense of accomplishment that I did not succumb to temptation this time. And then next time. And then next time. And the bad parts tease themselves apart from me, bit by bit. And then the next thing I know, I’m generally okay.

I know that I’ve got an addictive personality. I knew headed into my own pile o’ shite that anorexia or any other ED would probably leave me dead. So I resisted the pull. That didn’t stop me from succumbing elsewhere, but I had the wherewithal to AVOID a major eating disorder. My relationship with food and my body is a rocky one, don’t get me wrong. There are some ED tendencies there, but they are a symptom of something greater, and I’ve always seen that. For me, my vices lay elsewhere, and they lay in activities every bit as dangerous. But y’know what? *YOU* were one of the defining forces that kept me AWAY from that ED bullshit. And I thank you. Your rational, intelligent attack on the things in our culture that promote disordered eating were what kept me off of that road. Phew.

Well done.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 3:37 pm

3 On July 2nd, 2009, Rachel2

To emphasize again:

Well done, Rachel.

I only hope that one day I can use my own experiences to do what you’ve done.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 3:38 pm

4 On July 2nd, 2009, FatNSassy

You almost have to live in LA to understand Southern Californians. It truly is a place unto itself. For decades dieting was their religion. A SoCal girl was just as compelled to diet as a medieval nun was compelled to go to Mass. I spent almost all my teen years there and it was unbelievable. It was hard to even get a job as a waitress if you were over a size 8. They also take their trends seriously and are hyperconscious about the latest thing. So if everyone is calling food restriction fasting, it is uber important to identify it property and follow the crowd.

Meantime the entire state is about to default creating unknown economic turmoil. But you will be happy to know lawmakers had time to pass a bill requiring calorie counts for food chains. It is almost funny. I always said there is a connection between weight obsession and social breakdown! Keep them distracted enough with their scales and they won’t pay any attention of what else is going on.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 3:40 pm

5 On July 2nd, 2009, Rachel

But y’know what? *YOU* were one of the defining forces that kept me AWAY from that ED bullshit.

*Blushes* Statements like that are the main reason I continue to blog. Well, that and the incessant need to write, write, write

@FatNSassy: That’s an interesting perspective — I’ve never visited LA or Calif. for that matter. Doesn’t sound as if I’m missing out on much.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 4:03 pm

6 On July 2nd, 2009, Alyssa (The 39 year-old)

Lived in L.A. for 9 years, trying to do the acting thing. The funny thing was, before moving to L.A. I was a healthy, slim, working actress. As soon as I moved to L.A., I was considered WAAAAAY too fat (at 5′9″ and 140 pounds), fell back into my ED, and couldn’t get an interview with an agent, let alone a job.
FatNSassy hit it right on the head: dieting is a cult in L.A. And EVERYONE gets sucked in! Whatever they want to call it, a “lifestyle” or a “cleanse” or whatever, it’s all about being as skinny as possible. Meanwhile, the same people who refuse to eat anything other than organic, raw produce grown in a monastery tended by free-range goats are the same ones who willingly inject themselves with Botulism and silicone, fry their skin in tanning booths, and smoke like chimneys. (Never mind all the illicit grugs taken by the ones who can afford them.)
It is truly Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 4:45 pm

7 On July 2nd, 2009, Misty

[quote]Part of the ways in which I judge my recovery is in my ability to read an article such as Brown’s and not go out immediately and stock up on lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper with feverish abandon.[/quote]

It’s your blog, and you can do with it what you want, but I think you should also consider what effect your posts are going to have on your readers.

Fashion magazines are notorious for actually promoting diets while supposedly slamming them (and in the process detailing them in extreme particularity), because everyone knows that no matter how much the dieting is decried, many readers are going to use the descriptions of the diets as a blueprint.

Similarly, plus-size model Kate Dillon admitted that she developed anorexia because she saw a TV movie supposedly denouncing it. Instead, the film became her how-to manual.

Isn’t that what posts like this accomplish? Aren’t you potentially, indeed likely, sending more than a few of your readers rushing out to follow the diet that you’ve denounced?

Perhaps instead of just talking about your own state of mind, you might want to consider the effect that your words might have on those readers who might not have arrived at the place where you are now, and might still be likely to rush out to follow the diet that you’ve decried (and in the process described) here.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 5:12 pm

8 On July 2nd, 2009, Minnies

I’ve been so stressed out lately (autistic child to care for, new living situation, loss of my support system) that I’ve been tempted again and again to fast for a few days. I loved the clear-headed, light, blissful feelings fasting gave me — just those feelings are enough to be addiction-forming. I haven’t done it because I know where that road leads, but lately it’s always in the back of my mind. I really sympathize with drug addicts; it’s so hard to give up something that *works* for you, even when you know it will lead to ruin.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 6:24 pm

9 On July 2nd, 2009, Melissa

Thanks for this post Rachel.
My mother has been doing this regime from a book called “Eating Alive” and she swears it’s not a diet. Of course I laughed and said “Oh yes it is and you will put the weight back on”
Her and my sisters are quite obsessed with it, in fact paying quite a bit of money to see the naturopaths who wrote the book.
Of course she says she feels so fantastic because of this guy and she’s lost weight. She also claims is about health not weight loss- same stuff!
However I noticed as soon as she put a few pounds on she was back at the naturopath claiming that the toxins of mercury and zinc in her body was causing her not to feel good anymore.

She just about had a fit when I told her it was all psycho somatic and linked to weight and how her worth is deeply connected to it.
I’d show her this post but I’m sure she’s so transfixed by this book that it would float right over her head like everything else I’ve said.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 6:49 pm

10 On July 2nd, 2009, Shinobu

I did the Master Cleanse. I followed it as directed for two days, then figured out how many calories I was getting from sugar so I just drank half as much. It was easy to follow and I never wanted food, but when I tried to ease off it… I couldn’t eat. I felt guilty at the thought of putting any food into my body or even any calories. I couldn’t even get myself to chew gum. That diet got me to start abusing laxatives and I went through a bad time of “binging” (eating normally, mostly) and purging, lots of guilt and it took a long time to get back to normal.

Sadly, I crave that lemonade sometimes and have been tempted to try it again, even more after reading that article in Self.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 7:56 pm

11 On July 2nd, 2009, Rachel2

“But y’know what? *YOU* were one of the defining forces that kept me AWAY from that ED bullshit.” - Rachel2

“*Blushes* Statements like that are the main reason I continue to blog. Well, that and the incessant need to write, write, write :)” - Rachel The Original

It’s true, though. I don’t think that enough people are out there, calling these idiot magazine editors out on their bullshit. They can decry disordered eating habits and disease as much as they want to, but the reality of it is that they’re just in it for the money. “Skinny” models generate more sales. Just as stories about our F-ed up, disordered way of thinking snap up sales, too. People really want to believe these fashion magazines that they are altruistic and good. The reality is they are not. Their main motivation in life is to generate dollars. And I don’t think that there are enough thoughtful, intelligent bloggers out there willing to stand up and call them out on their bull. There are a lot of people clearly unhappy with this situation, but we’re still the quiet, white underbelly of our culture. And for every one of us that will stand up and not look at or buy this CRAP, there are 10-100 that WILL buy the magazines. That’s why the fight is so large. David vs. Goliath.

Now that I’ve exuded my punny and metaphoric brilliance for the day, I completely understand the need to write, write, write. I’ve stated many times that you and I are not so different. It’s really funny that we share the same name, and we are basically parallels. I hope that I can catch some of your momentum for my own little corner of the blogosphere.

@Misty: I think that Rachel is pretty careful about keeping herself OFF of the “how-to” manual track. And I think that she takes great care in doing so. And, it’s a blog. A personal blog. Which has not been nearly as graphic as these “Tell-All Exposes” on anorexia that you can find in almost any magazine at any time, and with a two word YouTube search there’s tons of it out there. The reason why I come here to read what Rachel has to say every day is because she HASN’T done that and is generally thoughtful, careful, and intelligent about how she’s broaching the topic. There are readers for her type of blogging, as there are millions more readers for the cockroach explosion of eating disordered thinking in our culture.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 8:03 pm

12 On July 2nd, 2009, Meowser

I basically can’t fast. Especially not on Remeron, but it’s an Officially Bad Idea if you’re insulin resistant, regardless. If I don’t eat regularly, I get shaky and hot, a sure sign of pancreatic overwork.

Master Cleanse sounds kind of like a better-tasting (maybe) bowel prep. Yeah, bowel prep, that was a…um…blast.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 8:25 pm

13 On July 2nd, 2009, Rachel2

Is that what it is, Meowser? hmm… Pancreatic overwork… I never thought of it that way, thanks! It gives me reason enough to continue treating myself right.

And ROFL Meowser! Holy crap, that’s funny! A blast, even…()

…Carry on, guys. I’m W.E.I.R.D. today. I think I’ll be blogging later on that.

posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 11:45 pm

14 On July 3rd, 2009, Kim

Totally off topic, but yay Carly Milne. Good to hear she’s still kicking around. I used to love her hold blog.

posted on July 3rd, 2009 at 12:03 am

15 On July 3rd, 2009, anonymous

Echoing Rachel2’s statements, I’ve also got an addictive personality and when I started college I really started having some body image programs and there were times I considered skipping meals and I was like “would Rachel care if I ate this? no, probably not.” and so, off to dinner I’d go.

So, yeah. Thanks.

posted on July 3rd, 2009 at 1:34 am

16 On July 3rd, 2009, Tricia

Oh my god. Uneducated commenters more? People are commenting on Dr. Z’s article with horrific comments:

“Today is the 6th day of my master clease. I am doing it with my 15 yr old daughter and my wife.

I feel good. Actually, 1 tbsp of syrup equals 100 calories, so taking about 12+ servings, I have reduced the calories by about 1/3 to 1/2, not so bad.

I feel cleansed, leaner off course, and lot mellower. I going to keep a better, lower meat diet so that I can keep the advantages.”

15 year old daughter?? As someone highly involved in sciences and nutrition, I have to call BS on this “cleanse” as well.

posted on July 3rd, 2009 at 9:38 am

17 On July 3rd, 2009, FatNSassy

Alyssa said
“Meanwhile, the same people who refuse to eat anything other than organic, raw produce grown in a monastery tended by free-range goats are the same ones who willingly inject themselves with Botulism and silicone, fry their skin in tanning booths, and smoke like chimneys.”

Giggle! I hope you are finding work elsewhere. LA doesn’t appreciate true talent, just conformity.

posted on July 3rd, 2009 at 5:25 pm

18 On July 6th, 2009, Rachel

Misty wrote: It’s your blog, and you can do with it what you want, but I think you should also consider what effect your posts are going to have on your readers.

…Isn’t that what posts like this accomplish? Aren’t you potentially, indeed likely, sending more than a few of your readers rushing out to follow the diet that you’ve denounced?

I understand your concern, but unlike some stories in the media, I don’t glamorize eating disorders or fad dieting, or at least I don’t think that I do. I tell the truth about my disorder and my life. I share with others how my eating disorder robbed me of friends, family, my job, my health, and years of my life that I will never get back. I point out how diets like the Master Cleanse above are effective only in taking your money and leaving you with health problems. I share with readers the social history of dieting and body image issues so that they can learn about the ways in which they’ve been bought and sold. I’m truly baffled as to how you can consider any of the above to be “glamorizing” eating disorders or dieting or providing a how-to manual.

It is a sad fact that our culture is rife with these kinds of messages, but I sincerely doubt that my blog will be the driving force for someone already susceptible to trying crash cleansing diets or other disordered behaviors. On the contrary, I’ve had numerous people write to me and tell me how they were considering some crazy diet or another and instead reconsidered after stumbling across on something I’ve written on it. And even if this were the case, eating disorders are not caused by the media. They are often exacerbated by the media, but the media alone is not the lone force behind eating disorder development. The media is often used as a convenient scapegoat for eating disorders, but eating disorders develop out of far greater psychological and physiological forces than size-zero models on the runway.

posted on July 6th, 2009 at 12:22 pm

19 On July 6th, 2009, Rachel

My mother has been doing this regime from a book called “Eating Alive” and she swears it’s not a diet. Of course I laughed and said “Oh yes it is and you will put the weight back on”
Her and my sisters are quite obsessed with it, in fact paying quite a bit of money to see the naturopaths who wrote the book.

I will try and put this in as non-gross terms as I can. At least four - five pounds of the weight loss you’ll see with fasting is simply a lack of fecal matter in your body. When you begin eating again, you gain that back almost instantly. Most people don’t realize this, though, and credit the “weight loss” to fasting.

posted on July 6th, 2009 at 12:28 pm

20 On July 6th, 2009, SJL

I’ve had to do various elimination diets to cope with allergies and sensitivities I’ve gone through over the years, and I’ve never been able to understand how the Master Cleanse is any better than a traditional elimination diet, with the focus not on calorie reduction, but isolation of ingredients. In fact it seems worse, since acid and spice are often culprits. And in any case, on traditional elimination diets, the severest restrictions are only followed for 2 days or so. After that, whatever is bothering you is sufficiently out of your system. The ultimate goal is always to return to as satisfying and nutritious diet as possible. Finally, doing this sort of thing is only really worth it if you have reason to believe that something in your diet is messing you up, or if you have a condition that has a proven tie to diet (like chronic yeast problems, IBS, interstitial cystitis, or food allergies, or if you’re recovering from some sort of GI illness).

posted on July 6th, 2009 at 2:19 pm

21 On July 6th, 2009, julie

Hmm, never thought about the 5 pounds of poo. I’m not fasting material anyway, not since my starving teenage days, long ago. I was malnourished, I remember my nails were so thin and bendy, not like now. I’m sure I wasn’t building bones those days either. Also, I seem sensitive to chemical imbalances, especially cramps from low potassium, so I don’t fast unless I’m still full from previous meal.

posted on July 6th, 2009 at 10:16 pm

22 On July 7th, 2009, Melissa

“I will try and put this in as non-gross terms as I can. At least four - five pounds of the weight loss you’ll see with fasting is simply a lack of fecal matter in your body. When you begin eating again, you gain that back almost instantly. Most people don’t realize this, though, and credit the “weight loss” to fasting.”

That must be why people say the feel so great in the first few days of fasting, regardless of what the fast is!
Thanks for that info Rachel!

posted on July 7th, 2009 at 8:00 pm