Scary nutrition plan for teenagers over at Erika's blog?

[beckerbuns]

Mother-daughter dieting seems to be common among fundies, like when Cheryl from Treasures from a Shoebox did a 60 day juice fast with three of her daughters. They called themselves "the secret society."

That's scary and sounds almost cultish. :(

[PokaDot]

I think the thing that bothers me most is the whole Jesus part; it becomes a thing where if it doesn't work, either you didn't trust HIM enough, or you better make it work because it has to look like Jesus did the magic. It's a wide open highway to some major eating disorders, health problems, and scary dieting all in the name of Christ.

Don't put that on him. Don't. And especially not for a young girl whose brain is still developing. GAH.

I thought about commenting on her blog that even though her daughter's body might be full grown, her brain isn't (and won't until her 20s). Then I realized that since fundies don't really care about brain development (particularly in females-gotta keep us dumb, right?) that it would be a waste of electrons.

[acheronbeach]

How does this woman homeschool? She can't even spell simple words.

[beckerbuns]

Reading this stuff over again I am just horrified. She is setting this girl up for an eating disorder, at the very least a distorted body image. :(

[IceQueen]

I was a sort of competitive figure skater as a kids and I knew kids on "special diets" so they would stay small and more disgustingly delay puberty. Hearing about anyone putting their child on an unnecessary diet makes my skin crawl. Eating disorders can be deadly. I was never a very promising skater, but I do still have body image issues from the sport. Ugh doing that intentionally makes me furious.

[dairyfreelife]

That's scary and sounds almost cultish. :(

Not exactly. The book they used got the juice fast diet was called "The Secret Society". Basically, for 60 days they ate fruits and veggies they juiced. No meat, barely any protein and they talked a lot about how they wanted real food, but the diet was "detoxing" them. She ended it when she found out she was pregnant. Then she miscarried.

[FreeJosie]

I cannot read her blog. All the ~smiles~, ~grins~, and ~shit~ get on my last nerve. But it sounds like an extremely restrictive diet and that the second she goes off it she will start gaining weight. You can't live on almost no fat and hot water forever.

My thoughts exactly.

[IamCanadian]

Her writing style drives me nuts. *cringe* I'm not usually one for emoticons, but they would actually make her writing less annoying *laugh*

[Handmaiden of Dog]

I am always shocked (and guess I should stop being so!) by how many chiropractors around here market themselves as nutrition and holistic health providers. However, on the ACA website, it says:

I worked for awhile at a wholesale supply house that specifically sold to chiropractors. The number of herbs, single vitamins, and vitamin combinations was in the hundreds. The mark-up was insane-- a bottle of 30 Vitamin A tabs would sell to the patient for $60.00 and this was 30 years ago! Seriously. The pitch was that these vitamins were scientifically proven to be exactly what your body needed and the grocery store vitamins were garbage. I think the chiropractors sold their patients hundreds of supplements a month for insomnia, arthritis, and tiredness-- you know, the usual complaints most people experience as they get older. So in other words they were snake oil salesmen.

Also I looked at the green smoothie recipe and it has this: 1-2 leaves (with stalks) Kale (absorbs many times it's body weight in toxins!) That is a sign that she doesn't have a clue about the real job of food and is only listening to (or reading) hucksters. Toxins are removed by our kidneys-- there is no need for special food or detoxing enemas or any of that other nonsense. Every time I read about somebody "detoxing" I roll my eyes-- it is a sure sign they haven't done any research and are following somebody who selling a fad.

The main thing that jumps out at me about her diet is the high protein. 8oz of protein for both snack and dinner. Plus more for breakfast and at lunch. Too much protein by far, which can actually be damaging to the kidneys from what I have read.

I'm with the rest of you-- this is an extreme diet that will guarantee failure because nobody can live like this forever. A slice of cake at a birthday party, a piece of pie at thanksgiving, or a "normal" meal on her birthday and she will fall off the wagon big time. And by the way, at 15 her daughter has NOT stopped growing.

[Hane]

So true. I didn't stop growing until I was 18.

Aside from her *douchy* writing style, the thing that bothers me most about her is the way she justifies things she just plain-old feels like doing. She gets all holy-holy about the crotch-concealing long skirts mandatory in her family, but blows off other fundie women who question her about her short hair and cite Scripture about it.

[infooverload]

Once again a lack of balance rears it's ugly head. I swear the word balance and what it means never enters the realm of extreme dieters. There is a reason reputable doctors stress working out and dieting in a balanced manner. I really wish there was a judicial scale emoticon on here because it would be a great addition to this post.

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

I remember telling my dad when I was 10 that I was going on a diet and he said "finally". Neither here nor there, but I just remembered that, and WTF. I was never even chubby.

[bananacat]

I thought about commenting on her blog that even though her daughter's body might be full grown, her brain isn't (and won't until her 20s). Then I realized that since fundies don't really care about brain development (particularly in females-gotta keep us dumb, right?) that it would be a waste of electrons.

Her body isn't full-grown anyway, unless this restrictive diet stunts her growth. It's common for people to continue growing at a slower pace well into their early 20s. I didn't get much taller after 18, but my boobs shot up like 3 cup sizes during college. And remember this girl is almost 15, meaning she is 14 but her mother wants it to seem less bad. Nobody is done growing at 14 or even 15.

[loulou]

That was the first time I read this particular blog and I wanted to throw my *damn* computer out of the window after the first paragraph. *smiles*

I love how she points out that Atkins is unhealthy, but her diet isn't looking that much better. It just screams yo-yo. I do hope she's not making her daughter stay on this, it's an eating disorder waiting to happen.

THIS. Can't stand her style of writing with those "fricking* *annoying* asterisks!

I agree that it's not a healthy diet. Yes, better than Kelly & her chicken breasts with no veggies, but that teen girl needs some carbs.

Hubby and I have been on Atkins and ate very similar to this. It's just a low-fat version of Atkins. Actually, Atkins is a healthier diet, as you are getting the good fats, more fruit (berries), and eventually some grains.

[Dysfundamental]

I grew two inches in height during college.

[LadyBlue]

I'm jealous of all of you who grew later on. I stopped growing when I was 10. And I was close to the shortest girl in my class at the time. The only reason I know this is because I wrote my height in my diary at the time and I'm still that height. (5')

Sadly, my breasts did not stop growing with the rest of me.

Thankfully, my parents never pushed me to diet. I'm not sure they ever really said anything about what I ate.

[bettertomarry]

I also find it scary that they've stopped buying five gallons of milk a week. Those kids are small and need the fat, especially if she's not supplementing them with other fats.

[Rowan]

And after I had my kidney stone, dark leafy greens like kale and spinach were very much on the "high in oxalate" category that can contribute to more stones and potential kidney damage.

So instead of getting rid of toxins with this "diet," she is potentially damaging the part of her body that already does that! :angry-banghead:

[Milly-Molly-Mandy]

I grew another 1/2 inch from 18-19...& 2 inches from 16-18. So yeah she may still be growing. Jeez.

[uber frau]

Never mind that there is more to 'growing' than an increase in height. There is no way this 15yo has finished growing, even if she has gotten as talk as she's going to. If all nothing else, doesn't her mother care about her health of all the foetuses her daughter will be expected to carry?

[moonbeam59]

No fruit? Is she stupid? No healthy 14-year-old should be on a diet that restrictive.

[dairyfreelife]

I'm with LadyBlue, totally jealous of you all who grew in your late teens and into college. No fair. I quit by like 13 and haven't grown since. And I'm fucking short and hate it. I barely hit 4'11". Stupid short genes.

I'm personally not bothered by lack of milk. I never drink cow's milk, or any cow or goat milk dairy products. There are lots of other ways to get fats and protein and calcium that don't involve dairy at all. Lots of veggies, including spinach, have decent amounts of calcium in them. Eating more vegetables isn't a bad thing at all. Good for them. The amounts of meat and lack of grains, legumes and fruit concern me. The no-grain thing doesn't make much sense until you are on a gluten-free diet for autism or intolerance or Celiac Disease. I don't consume any diary because of a serious lactose and casein intolerance. Why anyone would deprive themselves of all things dairy, like cheese and yogurt, is beyond me. What I wouldn't give to be able to eat stuffed shells and cheese on sandwiches and pizza and a bagel with real cream cheese again. Seriously, she needs to just watch her portions, eat healthier choices and exercise more with various different exercises if she wants to lose some of her baby weight. And she absolutely needs to leave her teenage daughters out of her body issues and diets. End of discussion.

[Just Not Good]

Did her doctor of chiropractic-and-all-the-things not recommend exercise? That seems nuts to me.

[polabear]

I'm jealous of all of you who grew later on. I stopped growing when I was 10. And I was close to the shortest girl in my class at the time. The only reason I know this is because I wrote my height in my diary at the time and I'm still that height. (5')

Sadly, my breasts did not stop growing with the rest of me.

Thankfully, my parents never pushed me to diet. I'm not sure they ever really said anything about what I ate.

I stopped at 4 ft 10 in the 5th grade. Thanks puberty! My mom was obsessed with my weight, and put me on diets most of my childhood. It did not engender healthy eating habits. I look back at my pictures, and I can't believe how not fat I was.

[Cheetah]

My daughter is almost 16 and she is definitely done growing... she's nearly 5'8" and has been for over 2 years. She's fully developed in all the other areas and hasn't changed size in 2 years as well. I was the same way, although I didn't end up quite as tall (I'm 5'6"). That said, most of her friends have grown a bit in the past year and still have frames that are more 'teen' than 'woman', but it's not impossible to be done at 15.