When "Healthy" is Actually Unhealthy
College Student Nadia Morehand
On the one hand it’s great that America is suddenly obsessed with being healthy. On the other, it often feels like information overload. There are countless health gurus, trendy diets, and wonder supplements all promising to deliver the body of your dreams, but what if what you thought was healthy turned out to be the worst thing you could do for your body? That’s what happened to college student Nadia Morehand.
When Morehand started college three years ago, she found herself exercising less and eating more processed food. Like countless other college freshmen, she gained weight. Morehand thought the solution would be to skip the occasional meal and work out more. “I was doing a lot of mindless eating and to compensate for eating badly, or too much, I would go to the gym sometimes twice a day,” she says. Thinking she was investing in her health, Morehand also stocked up on supplements and tonics that promised to help her slim down. “The fact is, none of it worked,” she admits.
Picks from the health food store that Nadia thought were healthy—but weren’t for her
Morehand decided the best solution would be to replace processed snacks with healthier alternatives like almonds, swap out the heavy cafeteria meals with more salads, and ditch the morning bagel for a fruit smoothie. She turned to healthy living blogs and Instagram accounts searching for #healthyfood in an attempt to revamp her diet. Inspired by bloggers and diet gurus, she got on the kale bandwagon and made a conscious effort to eat more superfoods. She even tried juice fasts. Gwyneth Paltrow might swear that juicing makes her glow, but Morehand experienced mood swings, exhaustion, and breakouts. And despite adding more dark green leafy vegetables and more fruits to her daily diet, she felt terrible. She had never eaten better, but she had never felt worse.
It was holistic doctor Dr. Glen B. Gero who was able to shed light on why all of Morehand’s healthy “solutions” weren’t working. For starters, all of the dark green leafy vegetables and nuts were the worst possible foods she could be eating because it turned out that she had Hypothroidism, also known as an underactive thyroid. The condition slows down metabolism, causes fatigue and depression, and if left untreated can cause further complications including obesity, infertility, and heart disease. “It turned out that all of the green smoothies were working against me,” Morehand explains. The so-called “healthy” foods that she now had to avoid included flax seeds, almonds, broccoli, brussel sprouts, strawberries, peanut, and peaches. To top it off, Dr. Gero explained that the vegetable juices she had been drinking actually contained hidden sugar that were most likely contributing to her mood swings and fatigue.
Individualized picks for Nadia recommended by a holistic doctor
Beyond eliminating the trigger foods, Dr. Gero had some good advice for Morehand. Work out regularly, 4 to 5 times a week, make lunch her biggest meal, and when it came to eating, just have everything in moderation. Avoiding the diet-of-the-moment in favor of a balanced lifestyle was a surprisingly easy fix for Morehand. Same with ditching the “slimming” teas and remedies she had picked up at the health food store. Dr. Gero also prescribed vegan protein powder, fiber, protein powder, and dynamic greens to make her body more alkaline and less acidic. It was an eye opening for Morehand: “There is no plan or solution that works for everyone,” she says. “There is no magic formula. It’s all about what works for you.”
