Eating clean is ruining your hormones

If you’re experiencing weight gain, fatigue, low energy levels, raging PMS, or hair loss—despite eating a healthy diet—that means that you’re not actually eating right for your own body. And it’s time to adjust.

08/08/2022

When someone tells me they eat clean, I want to plug up my ears and run far, far away.

But I'm a dietitian—shouldn't I want everyone to "eat clean" and avoid all the "bad” so we're all healthy and live happily ever after?

Um, no.

Let's unpack this.

Eating clean = avoiding food that we determine is bad. (Or dirty? IDK.)

When I have a new patient come to me and say something along these lines…

"I don’t need nutrition help because I'm [paleo/strictly organic/vegan]. But, even though my diet is great, I still [can't lose weight/have raging PMS/feel tired all the time/have hair loss/deal with lots of digestive issues.”

And then they expect me to concur that their diet is, in fact, amazeballs and there must just be something off with their hormones. Oh, and here’s a prescription for some herbs and adaptogens. 

Sorry, that’s a nope. 

Here’s the thing:

If you’re feeling like poop despite eating a really healthy diet, that means that you’re not actually eating right for your own body. And it’s time to adjust.

Now, sometimes this ruffles feathers. A lot of us eat what I call an “intellectual diet.” Meaning, we’ve researched and explored and experimented with what we’ve deemed is an ideal way of eating. 

Maybe there’s even been some legitimate research “proving” that this way of eating is ideal for the human race (spoiler: this research is 90% conducted on men). 

And another maybe, perhaps this diet (which, by the way, just means “way of eating”) worked really well for you in your 20s and early 30s…before kids. 

Those are just a few examples. And I promise you, I’m not discriminating on types of diets here! From keto to paleo to intermittent fasting to vegetarian to vegan…all sides of the diet spectrum are potentially problematic here. 

Because here's what I find out 100% of the time when a patient describes her symptoms to me, followed-up with “but I eat clean”:

The mom that thinks she’s “eating clean” is just simply not eating enough. Either not enough in general, or under-eating one or more specific nutrients— which makes her feel like garbage.

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: Under-eating ≠ underweight. Almost all of my weight loss clients are not eating enough; adding in more food is always part of our plan.

I find this whole idea of eating clean to be just another tool in diet culture. The toxic way we look at nutrition as a means to lose weight—and at the expense of our health, happiness, and power.

The idea to avoid this, avoid that. Eat just enough to not be starving. Be small enough. Be quiet enough.

Our bodies need a LOT of nutrients to thrive, including making and balancing hormones. But, we can get by for quite a while on “just enough to survive.”

Often, the beginning stages of these more restrictive, but seemingly healthy, diets can feel good. When you were younger, your body hadn’t yet been depleted from pregnancies. Your hormones were happier. Your sleep was better. Your stress was lower. (Remember that?!) “Eating clean” probably felt good.

But over time, nutrients become depleted…body composition changes…muscle is lost. Stress hormones go up, down, sideways. That leads to our sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA) not behaving and giving us lots of hormonal symptoms. And then, thyroid function can start to plummet.

And then, more hormonal symptoms. Anxiety, depression, mood changes, PMS, exhaustion, weight gain, brain fog, hair loss. 

If all this expectedly happens during hormonal transitions like postpartum and perimenopause, this highlights the hormonal issues even more. 

But then we think, “I’m eating so healthy! It must be something else. Maybe I should try an elimination diet?” Your doctor may even say the same thing.

Pro-tip: Doctors typically receive zero hours of nutrition training in school. They are not your best source for reliable nutrition information.

And so, to the mom who is eating clean but still feels terrible, I want you to know that with some diet tweaks, you can be eating in a way that makes you feel good in your body and not just in your brain.

Because we all want to thrive right? To feel GOOD in our bodies. To have energy and balance and joy.

That's what I want for myself, and also for you.

Now to be clear, I don't think we should all just go eat junk food all day, everyday. Or eat foods that cause our bodies to react negatively.

But we should be unafraid to fill in nutrition gaps—even if that means eating more. Let’s be unafraid to add in more of the food that supports our bodies to thrive. It's always about more, even when it's about less.

This is the backbone of my nutrition philosophy. To find out what your body is missing, in order to feel whole.

So consider this my rally cry to get to know your body again. The body you’ve successfully fed and nourished and grown new people in. If you’re not feeling well, it’s time to explore some diet and supplement changes to match your NOW body’s needs, not your yesterday’s body.