Since starting my business as a Holistic Nutritionist (RHNP) in 2018, I’ve found the vast majority of my clients have come to me for weight management. Not that there is anything wrong with this. If you are experiencing health or lifestyle challenges that would be alleviated if you were carrying less weight, or if you are currently at a body size that is uncomfortable for you, then seeking change can be a valid and worthwhile goal.

What I have also found, however, is that many of the clients who’ve come to me seeking weight loss were not experiencing health challenges, and often fit the criteria for a healthy body weight. In some cases, losing weight may have even put them at risk for nutrient deficiencies or other health complications. But as the result of Diet Culture, and of media portrayals of unrealistic beauty standards, they believed that being in a smaller body would lead to greater acceptance from society, from their partner, or from themselves.

On a regular basis, I also come face-to-face with the misconception that “low-calorie”, “low-carb” or “low-fat” equals “healthy”, when, in fact, the term “healthy” can be used to describe any food that is energy- or nutrient-dense, or nourishing for the body or soul.

If you are someone who can relate to this, know that it is not your fault, and you are certainly not alone. For all the progress we’ve made in the realms of holistic health and body positivity, Diet Culture is still as alive as it ever was.

Diet Culture, as described by the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, “is a system of beliefs that equates physical appearance and body shape with moral virtue and health. It promotes weight loss as a form of achieving status, values certain ways of eating over others, and devalues bodies that do not fit the standard ‘image of health’.”

Diet Culture can cause you to disconnect from your body, and can create social pressure that impacts the choices you make around how and when to fuel yourself. It does not take into account the reality that bodies are meant to come in all shapes and sizes, and that they are meant to change over time. It also does not consider that what is best for one person could be harmful for another. Instead, it gives a set of desired standards which are rooted in the pursuit of thinness, and not in the overall well-being of a person.

This can be harmful in a number of ways, from pressuring people toward weight loss, even if they are already healthy, to contributing to weight cycling (i.e. yo-yo dieting), metabolic damage, or even the development of eating disorders, which we now know have one of the highest mortality rates of any mental illness.

No one is immune to a culture as toxic and as pervasive as this. Not even me, with my years of training and experience in the holistic health and nutrition space.

In August of 2024, only weeks after our wedding, my husband and I were blessed with a positive pregnancy test (my first ever). As my pregnancy progressed, and my nutrient needs increased, I found myself having intense cravings for what we in the nutrition space call “empty calories” – junk food.

This did not make any sense to me. I’d been eating a healthy (whole-food) diet for years. I no longer had a taste for ultra-processed foods, and knew that there were no nutrients they contained that I could not get from fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, nuts or beans. Even more-so, I knew the nutrients found in my regular (“clean”) diet were much higher quality, and would be better absorbed to better serve my growing body and baby.

And then the meltdown happened. My husband and I were returning from our daily hour-long walk with our dog, and I suddenly got very quiet – unresponsive, even. I couldn’t articulate to my husband what exactly was wrong. I just knew I felt panicky – like something inside me needed to be remedied right away, though I couldn’t say what. My brain was a spiral of non-specific anxiety. Everything around me grated on my nervous system – the cold, the dog, my to-do list, my husband. I felt the weight of my daily environmental demands, and knew they exceeded my capacity to meet them at my current energy level. Physically, I felt weak and shaky. Mentally, I felt foggy, distant and overwhelmed.

I knew it wasn’t unusual for pregnant women to experience mood swings, low energy or irritability; I was also no stranger to the feeling of being “hangry”. But this was different. This felt like bone-deep depletion, like my body and brain were starving on a cellular level. It reminded me of how I used to feel almost every day of high school.

And then, I knew.

The intense cravings, the low-blood sugar, the hyper-fixation on food… I was not eating enough.

I’d had my usual high-protein, super-food smoothie for breakfast, which had been plenty of fuel for my mornings for the past few years, but now my body’s needs were different. My caloric needs were increasing drastically, and although my typical “day of food” before becoming pregnant may have been sufficient and healthy at the time, my baseline had changed; the ways in which I was accustomed to feeding myself were simply not enough anymore. In all likelihood, I’d been under-fueling for the past several days, or even weeks.

This would certainly explain my junk food cravings; ultra-processed foods like donuts, milkshakes, potato chips and cereal may not contain the nutrient-density of whole foods, but they did deliver one thing that my morning smoothie did not: a lot of calories, fast. And what are calories but energy? Just as I’d been trying to tell clients for years, the body is incredibly intelligent; While a clean, whole-foods diet provides many benefits that, over time, help us to feel our best and achieve optimum health, when we’re in survival-mode, the body will prioritize the most efficient energy sources, and produce the hormones and brain signals to steer us toward those foods.

Despite what Diet Culture might say, this is one circumstance where high-calorie, high-fat or even high-sugar options could be considered “healthy”, if they give us what we need in the moment. Cravings for these foods are essentially the body’s form of triage.

I am in no way saying that ultra-processed foods are the most ideal nourishment for myself or my baby, or that I would recommend they be the long-term foundation for anyone’s diet, whether or not they are pregnant. But this experience did serve as an important wake-up call; Pregnancy is a season of rapid (and necessary) growth. One which required me to be in an energy surplus. And by definition, one which required me to go directly against all the tenets of Diet Culture that had been so normalized and seared into my brain since I was old enough to watch T.V. or flip through a magazine.

Whether or not I liked to admit it, there were some facets of my mindset and my relationship with food that lingered from my high school eating disorder days: “less is more”, habitually plating up the same “safe” portions of food that I was used to, and staying within a comfort zone of slight hunger at all times, to name a few. And I knew these were not unique to me, or even individuals who suffer from eating disorders; they were common – even encouraged – tenets of Diet Culture.

Side note: if you are (even just a little bit) hungry all the time, you are not giving yourself sufficient fuel.

This experience effectively demonstrated for me how harmful Diet Culture can be, and served as an important reminder to stay vigilant; just because something is normalized and pervasive doesn’t mean it’s what’s best for everyone all the time. It also served as a reminder that recovery (from any addiction or mental illness) is an ongoing process.

In my pregnancy journey, I find I’m being forced to face and learn a lot that applies to everyday life, and can also apply to individuals who are not pregnant. Why must a woman shepherd another life before she decides it worthwhile to care for herself, as though she alone is not worthwhile, not also someone’s child?

Self-care and self-trust are not just luxuries-disguised-as-rights by entitled millennials. Grace is perhaps most essential and most effective when it’s turned inward. Above all else, it’s important honour our bodies’ needs through all the changing seasons of life.

Diet Culture be damned. When we take care of our bodies, they will take care of us in return. 

Not too long ago, I was out for lunch with family when I heard an older relative describe salt as “pure poison”. When I asked them what they meant by it, the only elaboration they were able to give was that “their doctor told them so”.

As someone who’s worked in the health and nutrition space for almost ten years, this alarmed me for a number of reasons:

1) As our largest dietary source of sodium, salt is one of the most fundamental (literally elemental) nutrients for our survival; sodium, a key electrolyte mineral, helps to conduct nerve impulses, contract and relax muscles (including our heart), and maintain proper fluid balance within cells, allowing them to function optimally.

2) Researchers at McGill University have found that sodium functions as an on-off switch for specific neurotransmitters that support optimal brain function and protect the brain from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

3) Sodium supports insulin function and blood-sugar balance, and studies have shown that sodium deficiency may contribute to insulin resistance, a condition which is often a precursor to diseases such as diabetes, PCOS, and Alzheimer’s.

4) Sodium is essential for proper hormone balance, thyroid function, and metabolism; a 2017 study of over 3200 patients found that people with blood sodium levels within the normal range had lower cortisol (stress hormone) levels compared to those with abnormally high or low sodium. Furthermore, sodium is a key facilitator in the production of the thyroid hormones T3 and T4, which serve to increase metabolic rate and boost muscle protein synthesis, bone development, and hydration.

I’m not saying my relative’s doctor didn’t know what they were talking about; on the contrary, there are many very good and knowledgeable physicians for whom the constraints imposed by the structure of our healthcare system do not allow them the time to delve into the nuances of the salt/sodium conversation.

One of these very important nuances is this: what TYPE of salt are we talking about?

I often refer to a favourite Michael Pollan quote from his best-selling book, Food Rules: “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food”; the rationale being that, the further industrial processing takes a substance from its natural state, the less our physiology is able to recognize and metabolize it, and therefore the less beneficial (and more potentially harmful) it becomes.

Unfortunately, like the prevalence of ultra-processed “food-like products” in our diet, white table salt falls into this category.

Far from the valuable salt licks our ancestors sought out for energy and nourishment, the refined white salt you find in most supermarkets and prepackaged foods is heavily denatured, often bleached, and stripped of other essential minerals that work synergistically with sodium to facilitate its health benefits.

As much as our bodies need sodium, they also need potassium, magnesium, calcium, and other minerals, all in delicately balanced ratios designed by nature to keep us properly hydrated and our cells functioning optimally.

At least some salt companies add iodine back in. So that’s nice.

High-heat processing also changes the chemical structure of sodium chloride, transforming it into a state that is no longer natural and is different from what our bodies are designed to use. It is THIS, along with the refined sugars, industrial seed oils, and other additives in ultra-processed foods which causes the high blood pressure and other health conditions that sodium is often blamed for.

As demonstrated in the studies above, our bodies need sodium. They do not need refined table salt.  

So how do I prefer to get my sodium?

In my daily cooking, as well as all of my published recipes, I always recommend using either Celtic Sea Salt or Pink Himalayan Salt (both readily available at your local health food store).

Harvested from clay-lined estuaries in France, Celtic Sea Salt is scraped from evaporated sea water, and simply crushed and packaged, “with nothing added and nothing removed”, so it retains all of its natural minerals and health benefits. Research has shown that Celtic salt may have anti-inflammatory properties, support immune function, and even help to regulate blood pressure due to its natural composition of trace minerals.

Pink Himalayan Salt is mined from the ancient Himalayan mountains of Pakistan (make sure you are getting a reputable brand, as there are many cheap imitations on the market). Considered to be one of the purest salts in the world, its pink hue is due to its high mineral content, which includes calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper and iron. These minerals, in combination with sodium, are shown to help regulate blood pressure, improve digestion, circulation, and detoxification, and reduce inflammation. It may also help reduce bloating and fluid retention.

If you are someone who follows a whole-foods diet, are active, or are currently under a lot of stress, chances are your body is depleted of sodium. And I can assure you that, far from being “poison”, one of the most supportive and nutrative things you can do is to sprinkle a little salt (Pink Himalayan or Celtic sea salt, please) on your food.

Don’t forget: we ourselves have been called “the salt of the earth”, and salt is a key ingredient in just about any and everything that we consider to be sacred and healing – be it our sweat, our tears, or the sea.

My fiance and I have been very fortunate to enjoy abundant travel opportunities this past year, and during these excursions, it came to my attention that I can be something of a “drill sergeant” when it comes to staying hydrated. I can’t help it. It alarms and disturbs me to watch someone go a whole day (or even a few hours) without taking a sip of water – something we can easily forget when we’re in a new place, outside of our regular routine.

It’s just that I know how I feel when I’m dehydrated: overly fatigued, head-achey, moody and shaky, with weird food cravings and brain fog that makes it nearly impossible to string two thoughts together. And that’s no way to enjoy a vacation.

It’s no mystery that proper hydration is essential for everything from immune and brain function to digestive health, hormone regulation, cellular ATP production (i.e. energy), nutrient absorption, and even body temperature regulation. And I know I’m not alone in my borderline-neurotic “drink more water” compulsion.

But what does it really mean to be properly hydrated? Our ancestors, after all, did not have constant access to potable water. They did not set timers to remind themselves to drink it. They certainly were not gulping two-plus liters of it per day (the modern bare-minimum recommendation for proper hydration).

How is it that we, as a society, are drinking more water than ever before, and yet we’re the most dehydrated that we’ve ever been?

The answer, it may surprise us to learn, is not in the water itself, but in our soil.

Chemically, there are 3 components to proper hydration: Hydrogen, Oxygen, and electrolytes. Pure water (H2O) is not an electrolyte, but in its most natural state (as we would have sourced our drinking water in the pre-industrialized world), fresh ground water picks up salts and minerals from the earth, which then function as electrolytes in our bodies.

Very simply put, electrolytes are elements that conduct an electrical current. And electricity is the very essence of our energy as human beings. It’s how our nerves transmit signals to our muscles, how the neurotransmitters in our brain and body communicate, how we think, how we animate, how we love. This why experts estimate that we can live up to 70 days without food, but only about 3 days without water. It’s not just the water that’s essential to our survival; it’s the electrical conductors it supplies that keep our hearts beating.

Chief among these electrolytes are minerals such as sodium (yes, adequate sodium is actually essential to our health), potassium, and magnesium. Once upon a time, these minerals would have been abundant in our earth and soils. But as a result of industrial farming practices such as tilling and monocropping, these minerals have been depleted over time. When the American Department of Agriculture examined the nutrient levels of crops from every corner of North America in 2002, they found that all nutrients had decreased by an average of 50% since the last study in 1963.

This, combined with the fact that many of us are consuming more processed food and treated or ultra-filtered water, has led to the startling estimate that as little as 10% of us are getting adequate electrolytes, which essentially means up to 90% of us are chronically dehydrated.

So what can we do to fix this?

On an individual level, and perhaps most importantly, we can make sure that the water we are drinking contains minerals. This means that, if we are drinking municipally-treated or filtered water, we should add in trace mineral drops (which you can easily purchase at your local health food store), or an electrolyte supplement (my favourite is LMNT). This is especially important if you are drinking distilled or reverse osmosis water, as these forms of purification remove all essential minerals, leaving nothing but pure H2O, which can actually deplete our bodies further of minerals when we drink it.

If you’re not a fan of supplements, or hesitant to invest in expensive powders and drops, you can also simply add a pinch of Pink Himalayan or Celtic Sea Salt to every litre of water that you consume. These types of salts, sourced from natural, third-party-tested harvesting sites, and left unprocessed, contain the proper ratios of essential minerals that we need to stay healthy.

You can also find my homemade “DYI Electrolyte Booster” recipe HERE.

Fun Fact: Salt in and of itself is not actually the culprit of high-blood pressure; It’s high amounts of sodium, consumed without other essential minerals such as magnesium and potassium to balance it out. The most common type of salt that we find in pre-packaged foods, in restaurant kitchens, and even in most household cabinets is refined white table salt, which has been chemically treated and stripped of essential minerals. This, combined with a diet high in inflammatory seed oils and sugars (also commonly found in ultra-processed and packaged foods) is a recipe for high blood pressure.

On the global/policy level, it’s important that we vote with our dollar whenever we can to have a positive influence on our food system. This means purchasing our produce from local farmers and sustainable producers, or even growing it ourselves. Look for food producers in your community who value regenerative farming practices. These are traditional farming techniques that protect soil health and produce more nutritious, mineral-rich food.

Mineral deficiency is something that affects nearly everyone. And without adequate minerals, our cells cannot produce the energy we need – and our bodies cannot conduct the electrical impulses – for us to live our most vibrant and prolific lives. But together, we can turn healthy mineral status back into the right it once was, rather than a privilege. We can affect change, and play a role in a more mineralized (and hydrated) world.