Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff Mom Never told You from House top
Speaker 1: works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Kristen and I'm Caroline, and today we're talking about juicing.
Speaker 1: Which when we've mentioned that we're talking about juicing this
Speaker 1: week to co workers of ours, they've all given us
Speaker 1: a look and assume that we're talking about steroids. We're not.
Speaker 1: Oh darn it, are you gonna roy it out? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I took all of those steroids just in preparation for
Speaker 1: this episode, Christian. Caroline is about to burst out of
Speaker 1: her cardigan. Yeah, I know I'm wearing. I'm wearing my
Speaker 1: typical everyday cardigan over my leotard. Um, I've got my
Speaker 1: my barbells in the corner. But um, oh, well, well,
Speaker 1: I guess we'll just talk about fruit juices and vegetables. Oh,
Speaker 1: vegetable juices as well. Kale. We're going to exclusively talk
Speaker 1: about kale. Yeah, Caroline, I didn't realize until I really
Speaker 1: started thinking about this whole juice culture that I've kind
Speaker 1: of bought into it a little bit. Okay, because one
Speaker 1: of my favorite things to do, and it is probably
Speaker 1: the waspyest thing that I like to do. But on
Speaker 1: Saturdays when I am able to, I like to take
Speaker 1: the morning yoga class and then I go over to
Speaker 1: a little chop around the corner called Kale Me Crazy Friends.
Speaker 1: As soon as I saw kille Me Crazy was opening,
Speaker 1: I was like, that's going to be a place where
Speaker 1: I would like to go because it's a pun and
Speaker 1: there's scale involved in juice. And I get myself a
Speaker 1: seven dollar juice and I know it's ridiculous. I know
Speaker 1: it's crazy. Literally kale Me kille Me Crazy. I'm paying
Speaker 1: that we are seven dollars for juice, but it's delicious
Speaker 1: and refreshing. It just like a little treat for myself.
Speaker 1: And then yes, it continues, Caroline. I now drink juice
Speaker 1: almost every morning because my dear fiance was gifted by
Speaker 1: his request, a neutro bullet. And no, this episode was
Speaker 1: not sponsored by neutro Bullet. But I can tell you
Speaker 1: that those things are great. They're so easy to how well, now,
Speaker 1: wait a second, because I have witnessed um people juicing
Speaker 1: and not in the steroid way and they have the
Speaker 1: the contraption in their kitchen and can't take them like
Speaker 1: hours out of their day to like feed all of
Speaker 1: this stuff into the juice machine. So is a neutro bullet.
Speaker 1: Does that take your fiance person forever? Well, it takes
Speaker 1: a fiance person not long at all, because there's a
Speaker 1: difference between an actual juice or we're not actually like
Speaker 1: getting the juice, extracting the juice from the veggies. It's
Speaker 1: really just like a kale smoothie. A kale smoothie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he loves it. And because we're in love, he
Speaker 1: makes one large enough for the both of us. I
Speaker 1: make the coffee. That's the worst best thing I've ever
Speaker 1: heard for the best worst, I don't know. It's delicious.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy for you. Thank you. No, I don't. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't make my own juices. My boyfriend used to,
Speaker 1: but I think he just like fell off the juice
Speaker 1: wagon because of the prep involved. Deal breaker Derek, deal
Speaker 1: breaker for Kristen. Kristen is breaking up with my boyfriend.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, We're fine. Uh. No, I I do. I
Speaker 1: love um some fresh juices. I do try to watch
Speaker 1: the sugar Intake. There's a place in Atlanta called Ardent's
Speaker 1: Garden that I love. Um. I do the Grand Slam
Speaker 1: to ward off like colds and icky feelings, pseudo science.
Speaker 1: I well, yes, exactly, and you just summed up this episode, Kristen.
Speaker 1: And now for listener male, No, but there is there
Speaker 1: is a I have an equivalent to, like call me crazy.
Speaker 1: I don't go there, but there's this place around the
Speaker 1: corner from my apartment that does have like incredibly expensive
Speaker 1: juices in the glass bottle, you know. And you walk
Speaker 1: in and you're like, am I walking into some sort
Speaker 1: of like dance club. It's all everything's like very sleek
Speaker 1: and modern and shiny. Yeah, And then the person behind
Speaker 1: the counter is like appropriately dismissive, not too much but
Speaker 1: just enough. And so then you shell out like half
Speaker 1: your paycheck for a couple of juices, and by then
Speaker 1: the placebo effect is just like pumping through your veins.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about this broader juicing culture that's happening,
Speaker 1: because we talked a while back now on the podcast
Speaker 1: about the whole concept of detoxing. Like after the holidays,
Speaker 1: everyone makes a New Year's resolution to drink like nothing
Speaker 1: but apple cider vinegar for two weeks or something like
Speaker 1: that and quote unquote detox their body. Actually don't think
Speaker 1: that's a real detox, but you know what I mean. Um,
Speaker 1: but now there's this whole juicing thing happening, and it's
Speaker 1: not just about the juice and about the nutrition, but
Speaker 1: also about the status attached to it. Oh yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean if I think it takes you seven dollars
Speaker 1: to buy a kale smoothie, Christen, and the fact that
Speaker 1: it takes me like unknown thousands of dollars to buy
Speaker 1: one single bottle and a glass. But I will pat
Speaker 1: my thirty year old self on the back for spending
Speaker 1: seven dollars on that kale smoothie instead of the seven
Speaker 1: dollars on vodka soda. Would Okay, you're sticking to the
Speaker 1: liquid theme. I was already on cheeseburgers. I guess it
Speaker 1: is around lunch time for us. Oh no, I still
Speaker 1: pat myself on the back for that seven dollars will
Speaker 1: spend on a burger. Protein. Yeah, well, protein is another
Speaker 1: thing that we will get into in this episode. But
Speaker 1: the whole thing about not getting protein when you're on
Speaker 1: a juice cleanse is that stereotypically and historically it's just
Speaker 1: been juice and so there is no protein. And I
Speaker 1: found the culture, the origins of juice cleans and juice
Speaker 1: fasting culture fascinating. It's not that it's hyper gendered, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of hyper weird. And it starts in the
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties with an alternative health practitioner and liver cirrhosis
Speaker 1: sufferer named Norman Walker, and he invented the cold pressed
Speaker 1: Norwalk juicer, which the first time I read Norwalk Juicer,
Speaker 1: I just thought of those Nordic tricks, you know, those
Speaker 1: machines that all of our parents bought. No Um, and
Speaker 1: he encouraged drinking raw fruit and vegetable juices for better health,
Speaker 1: which seems like a good idea. Yeah. And it's funny though,
Speaker 1: because he preached self transformation through vegetable juices in California.
Speaker 1: Match Um. But as much as he was preaching this,
Speaker 1: it's funny because you can pick out trends. Kristen. He
Speaker 1: did not mention kale once. He still thought kale was
Speaker 1: just a garnish shoe new Um. Also popular around this
Speaker 1: time is gerson therapy, which was a dietary and juice
Speaker 1: based treatment in heavy heavy air quotes for cancer and
Speaker 1: chronic diseases. They used the same logic basically as juice cleanses.
Speaker 1: Now that your body is full of toxins. You've got
Speaker 1: to clean it out. Oh. But also this process involved
Speaker 1: getting enemas of coffee castor oil and sometimes hydrogen peroxide
Speaker 1: or ozone. But it's interesting that it was disproven back
Speaker 1: in nineteen so this is in the thirties, but by
Speaker 1: seven people were already like, guys, guys, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: Just have a salad like this is crazy. Well, it
Speaker 1: was also in the nineteen forties that a natural path
Speaker 1: named Stanley Burrows introduced the Master cleanse to quote unquote
Speaker 1: naturally detox the body. And if Master Cleanse sounds familiar,
Speaker 1: it's the one that Beyonce and other people have touted,
Speaker 1: which is the lemon juice, cayenne pepper and what else
Speaker 1: isn't it maple syrup and maple syrup. That's right, comba
Speaker 1: that you just drink and that's really all you need.
Speaker 1: And apparently if you drink it long enough then you'll
Speaker 1: start to feel really euphoric. But it's just because your
Speaker 1: body is like eating itself from the inside. Yeah no,
Speaker 1: that's not a joke. Uh yeah, this is it's a
Speaker 1: ten day liquid diet. But let's be honest and call
Speaker 1: it a fast, although apparently you can do it up
Speaker 1: to forty days, which Burrows helpfully points out is how
Speaker 1: long Jesus fasted. But Caroline, he's the Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1: He didn't need food. He certainly does not need koe.
Speaker 1: But don't forget the laxatives everyone, because it's not enough
Speaker 1: to just punish your body with imbibing nothing but lemon juice,
Speaker 1: cayne pepper, and maple syrup. You also have to drink
Speaker 1: laxative tea at night. And so at that point it's like, well,
Speaker 1: why bother with the drink? Just if you're developing an
Speaker 1: eating disporder, uh, seek help um. And it was supposed
Speaker 1: to cure stomach ulcers, help you lose weight. Burrows thought
Speaker 1: that disease, old age, and death or just the result
Speaker 1: of having accumulated poisons and congestion throughout the entire body.
Speaker 1: And juicing also has a criminal past, Burrows specifically does.
Speaker 1: He was eventually convicted of practicing medicine without a license,
Speaker 1: and people you might be happy to know his second
Speaker 1: degree murder conviction was reduced to involuntary manslaughter. He was
Speaker 1: convicted for treating a leukemia patient who was desperately seeking
Speaker 1: some type of cure to live longer, and I think
Speaker 1: stopped pursuing regular medical treatment. Obviously, that's that's up to
Speaker 1: you if you want to do that. But you know,
Speaker 1: Burrows paid the price for it. Talk about a dark
Speaker 1: past for the Master Cleans um, But that was no
Speaker 1: matter to scientologist entrepreneur Peter Glickman, who in the nineties
Speaker 1: nineties repackaged the Master cleans as the Lemonade diet. Oh
Speaker 1: it sounds so pleasant, and I wonder if this scientology
Speaker 1: connection is part of why juicing is so ubiquitous in
Speaker 1: Hollywood today. Side theory um, But Glickman's purpose was exact
Speaker 1: the same, the whole concept of eliminating toxins and poisons
Speaker 1: from the body, washing out your digestive system, and getting
Speaker 1: rid of addictions to drugs, alcohol, junk food, and caffeine um.
Speaker 1: And he claimed that any uncomfortable side effects, including I'm
Speaker 1: assuming hunger, we just meant that you were super toxic
Speaker 1: pre clans. So you just your body flushing things out.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's going to hurt a little bit heavy
Speaker 1: I roll. By the nineties seventies, juicing is part of
Speaker 1: hippie health crazes. It's not mainstream, but it's very common
Speaker 1: to a certain subset of the population. But by the
Speaker 1: nineties it's definitely part of that vegan and super food trend.
Speaker 1: And hey, you get a natural high. Everything's great. Let's
Speaker 1: do things in the nineties like where Empire waste dresses
Speaker 1: and Doc Martin's and have our juice. The nineties is back,
Speaker 1: it sure is. Um But if you look at any
Speaker 1: history of this juicing trend, you always get religious citations, because,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned, this isn't so much a diet but
Speaker 1: really a fast. You have Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, all of
Speaker 1: whom fast it at some point for religious reasons. Although
Speaker 1: of course in religious fasting spiritual fasting, depriving yourself of
Speaker 1: food is about connecting yourself to your spirituality, to a deity, etcetera,
Speaker 1: cultivating that devotion and self control rather than just trying
Speaker 1: to lose weight quick or take your intestines through to
Speaker 1: the car wash, so to speak. That is exactly what
Speaker 1: I picture. Um well, actually, for some reason, I picture
Speaker 1: like dish soap going through or like the pink stuff
Speaker 1: from Ghostbusters going to your intestines. Um. But yeah, the
Speaker 1: religious faster definitely also about atoning for greed or gluttony.
Speaker 1: It's a form of discipline. And you get plenty of
Speaker 1: people today who do juice fasts or the more pleasant
Speaker 1: term juice cleanses um, but you know, saying that they're
Speaker 1: doing it as a form of self control too, and
Speaker 1: it's like or you know, maybe you're just trying to
Speaker 1: um lose weight and not claim that maybe. And it's
Speaker 1: very popular among celebrities, the Master cleans specifically, you have
Speaker 1: people like Jared Letto, to mean more, Beyonce, whom we mentioned,
Speaker 1: and Beyonce, for instance, famously lost twenty pounds in two
Speaker 1: weeks for her Dream Girl's role and she attributed that
Speaker 1: to the Master cleans. But I mean so obviously for
Speaker 1: citing Beyonce, which we are, juice fasts and juice cleanses
Speaker 1: are not just some underground hippie craze anymore of the sixties.
Speaker 1: This stuff is big business, especially among a certain subset
Speaker 1: of the population, which I'll just refer to as like
Speaker 1: the Pilates crowd, who plates pure bar soul cycle, Kristen
Speaker 1: leaving yoga. Yeah exactly, I am part of the crowd.
Speaker 1: They're part of the problem, part of the juice problem um.
Speaker 1: The l A Times in January reported that the cold
Speaker 1: pressed juice market is estimated to rake in one hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars a year, and no surprise there, you're charging
Speaker 1: seven dollars a pop. And that cold pressed refers to
Speaker 1: chopping and mashing the fruits and vegetables without heat in
Speaker 1: order to maintain its nutrient value, just pressing it real hard,
Speaker 1: really hard, real hard. The fancy juice industry in general
Speaker 1: is worth more like two billion a year, so that's
Speaker 1: taking into account all different types of juices and smoothies.
Speaker 1: And it's also worth pointing out that there are more
Speaker 1: in this in this country of fifty states. Uh, there
Speaker 1: are more than six thousand juice bars or boutiques as
Speaker 1: you might call them across the country. And it's big
Speaker 1: business now for big corporations because you now have fast
Speaker 1: food restaurants offering their smoothies which contain how much fruit?
Speaker 1: Who's to say? Used to say, really, who really wants fruit?
Speaker 1: And then you have Starbucks, which recently bought the juice
Speaker 1: company Evolution Fresh for a cool thirty mill and Coke
Speaker 1: has a share in Innocent Drink, So everybody's get in
Speaker 1: on the juice cache, and you mentioned fast food restaurants, Kristen,
Speaker 1: they're sort of like the gateway. Fast food smoothies are
Speaker 1: sort of the gateway drug into juicing culture. It turns
Speaker 1: out that those smoothies with who knows how much actual
Speaker 1: nutritional value at fast food restaurants make up thirty of
Speaker 1: the juice and smoothie bar market. Now, there have been
Speaker 1: some dips in juice products because some people have been like, hey, wait,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of sugar in these juices. Is that
Speaker 1: so healthy? Because obviously these kinds of sweeter fruits that
Speaker 1: are being juiced contain a lot of fructos, so you
Speaker 1: have high sugar levels. Um. But those vegetable and veg
Speaker 1: fruit juice blends are booming, though they are a much
Speaker 1: smaller share of the market. Well. So, speaking of market
Speaker 1: shares and money and percent signs my favorite three things,
Speaker 1: let's talk about dollar signs. Because wealth is basically like
Speaker 1: disposable income is basically a prerequisite to participate in the
Speaker 1: juicing culture. And I'm not talking about your picking up
Speaker 1: a seven dollar Kale drink on the way out of
Speaker 1: yoga once a week. A little bit of shaming under
Speaker 1: absolutely not what I'm talking about is the actual Like
Speaker 1: you're committed to this as a lifestyle, you probably go
Speaker 1: on many cleanses or juice fasts to sort of quote
Speaker 1: unquote clean yourself out. But you have to have a
Speaker 1: certain amount, like I said, of disposable income, because buying
Speaker 1: yourself a juicer, Sure you can get one for a
Speaker 1: hundred bucks, a couple hundred bucks, but it can run
Speaker 1: you up to twenty five hundred dollars to get yourself
Speaker 1: a home juicer. Yeah, and not to mention all the time,
Speaker 1: if you're actually juicing your own stuff that it takes um.
Speaker 1: But if you go to a store, each bottle can
Speaker 1: cost up to ten dollars. You have entire juice programs
Speaker 1: that we'll talk about in more detail that run you
Speaker 1: up into the hundreds. Um. And this also reminds me
Speaker 1: side note Caroline, of when Whole Foods became a laughing stock,
Speaker 1: as they kind of do sometimes when they were selling
Speaker 1: the asparagus water for I think it was five dollars
Speaker 1: plus and some of their stores where it was just
Speaker 1: water enriched with asparagus, wasn't it asparagus? Yeah? Just I
Speaker 1: mean this is this is it's my favorite cocktail. I
Speaker 1: just poured some water. It's been distilled in the mountains,
Speaker 1: and I just stick in asparagus spear in it lish.
Speaker 1: You can't wait to go to your next cocktail party.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we have a lot of fun, and by we,
Speaker 1: I mean just myself and the asparagus um. But you
Speaker 1: would think, like with how pricing this stuff is said,
Speaker 1: it would be really off putting. Like I know that
Speaker 1: I don't go to the Snoothy place or the the
Speaker 1: juice place all the time because it can be pricey,
Speaker 1: and plus it helps to drink water as well. But
Speaker 1: this doesn't put off too many people, according to consultant
Speaker 1: Andrew Freeman, who talked to The l A Times. He
Speaker 1: says juice drinkers are willing to pay for quality to
Speaker 1: be in the know. We've come a long way from Tang.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the shout out to Tang. So basically, he's
Speaker 1: he's telling us point blank that this is about being
Speaker 1: part of a cool kids club. The whole like juicing.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna run over in my yoga pants and pick
Speaker 1: up my like week's worth of juice fast products. It's
Speaker 1: totally part of a like kind of a popular kids,
Speaker 1: rich kids club. Oh yeah, I mean, I do feel
Speaker 1: like a well healed basic when I look out kill
Speaker 1: me crazy freshly yogad. I'm glad I wasn't the only
Speaker 1: podcaster in this room who was reminded of our our
Speaker 1: Basic Bees episode when I was reading this stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're so right though, that they're definitely class
Speaker 1: implications to it, because people who tend to be represented
Speaker 1: in these juicing conversations are usually white, and specifically white
Speaker 1: upper class women. And that's not to say that women
Speaker 1: of color or people of color aren't juicing, obviously, that
Speaker 1: would be a ridiculous statement. We we saw one blog
Speaker 1: entry from Detroit, which is Detroit with the D crossed off,
Speaker 1: and she written, every uh Shetroit blogger Kayla feels like
Speaker 1: she has to convince people that drinking green juice is
Speaker 1: healthy and smart. And she was saying that, you know,
Speaker 1: I really don't encounter that many other women of color
Speaker 1: who juice. And she's saying that she wished she could
Speaker 1: be walking around with her jar of green juice and
Speaker 1: like lock eyes with another woman of color who's also
Speaker 1: carrying a smoothie around and be like, yes, this is delicious,
Speaker 1: rather than feeling like she has to convince friends and
Speaker 1: family that this is actually healthy and worthwhile. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: David Lieberman, blogging over at Sea Weekly, made an interesting
Speaker 1: observation as well that I thought about actually, at my
Speaker 1: local farmers market, I'm so white in this episode. That's
Speaker 1: so white. It's cool though. Um. He said that, you know,
Speaker 1: it's ridiculous how ladies like myself will spend you know,
Speaker 1: seven eight dollars for a single serving at call me crazy,
Speaker 1: but if you go to your farmer's market or just
Speaker 1: like any kind of international food store, even your international
Speaker 1: section and your larger grocery stores, you will have these
Speaker 1: quote unquote exotic juices that are quite affordable. They're just
Speaker 1: from international labels. I mean, that's Caroline, That's how I
Speaker 1: get my mango juice the farmer's markets like a dollar
Speaker 1: fifty because it's in a box and it's just a
Speaker 1: it's not a fancy brand. Well. Lieberman also positive that
Speaker 1: there are people out there who wouldn't even want to
Speaker 1: go to an international farmers market setting to buy a
Speaker 1: similar juice to the one that they're shelling ten bucks
Speaker 1: for exactly that they're sort of almost paying for the
Speaker 1: experience of going to whole foods in their yoga gear
Speaker 1: and buying that expensive juice around their other yoga taking peers. Well,
Speaker 1: and there might be the motivation to for it to
Speaker 1: be fresh pressed and not you know, having been pressed
Speaker 1: and then shipped and then sitting on shell. Yeah. Sure,
Speaker 1: I mean, but he also talks about how he went
Speaker 1: to like one of his local markets near his house
Speaker 1: and the woman behind the counter was like, oh, what
Speaker 1: do you want? Okay, cool, and she actually took the
Speaker 1: carrots and the beats and the whatever and and blended
Speaker 1: them right in front of him. So it does seem
Speaker 1: like some of this juice craze has been borrowed, perhaps
Speaker 1: from other cultures. I mean, there are Latin restaurants in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: for instance, that are known for their juices and they've
Speaker 1: been juicing for forever. But now we see these like specialized,
Speaker 1: more clientele boutiques that do a similar kind of thing,
Speaker 1: but they just check up the price. Don't worry, white people,
Speaker 1: you don't have to go into an international market. Just
Speaker 1: go to whole foods where you're comfortable. I mean, Caroline,
Speaker 1: call me crazy, just simply convenient to where I take yoga,
Speaker 1: I promise. Um. But what's also interesting to see are
Speaker 1: these theories about how part of the success of juice
Speaker 1: saying today is all attributed to our busy lives, like
Speaker 1: we literally don't have time to eat, so just drink
Speaker 1: it down on the go. Yeah, it's so funny. So
Speaker 1: I have the full disclosure here. Um. I know a
Speaker 1: woman who was quoted in the l A Times article
Speaker 1: from January. Her name's Alexis Schultz, and she co founded
Speaker 1: the juice chain Nectar, which is based out of California,
Speaker 1: but it's also in Arizona in Texas. Uh. Alexis says
Speaker 1: that it's accessible for people who try to get their
Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables in but who say I just don't
Speaker 1: have time to sit down and eat a salad. And
Speaker 1: to me, that just sounds like the people who say
Speaker 1: they don't like the taste of water. You know. It's like,
Speaker 1: what really are we that? Are we that busy? I mean,
Speaker 1: but this is a sentiment you see echoed and lots
Speaker 1: of articles about juicing that like, uh, New York is
Speaker 1: so fast paced, we can't slow down. We have to
Speaker 1: be skinny and drinking juice on the run. It fits
Speaker 1: in with our culture. But here in Atlanta, you can
Speaker 1: sit down and eat yourself a whole apple, if you like,
Speaker 1: maybe even a banana of appealing. That's crazy. And there's
Speaker 1: a whole argument too of juicing as a quick fix
Speaker 1: for feeling tired and run down. But again that's all
Speaker 1: part of this whole We're so busy we can't even
Speaker 1: prepare food, so we're busy, we're tired, we're juicing. It
Speaker 1: sounds like we're just kind of on a treadmill, so
Speaker 1: to speak. Well, we could just be tired of those
Speaker 1: previous fake fixes, you know, Like I know that my
Speaker 1: parents in the Indies, the entire kitchen was stocked with
Speaker 1: snack wells. When I was a kid, Caroline, I would
Speaker 1: see those snack wells and I saw the commercials, and
Speaker 1: I knew that they were low fat to fat free,
Speaker 1: and I was way too conscious about that stuff. When
Speaker 1: I was a kid. When I would go grocery shopping
Speaker 1: with my mom, I would beg her to buy snack wells.
Speaker 1: She would be like, that is ridiculous, will make you
Speaker 1: a cookie? And then the poop chips, Yeah, wild chips.
Speaker 1: I also was really excited about those, like I was like,
Speaker 1: finally fat free chips. And again my mom stuff. My
Speaker 1: mom did tell me, no, I'm not buying you those,
Speaker 1: they'll makey poop. Well, now, it's just funny because like
Speaker 1: in my house, my dad had a heart attack when
Speaker 1: I was in fifth grade, and so all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like everything in the house had to be fat free,
Speaker 1: which is so funny to think about, because like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to tell you how to live your life, people,
Speaker 1: but you know, the focus maybe should be on more
Speaker 1: like whole foods and fruits and vegetables whole. It's not
Speaker 1: the grocery store. I mean, like literally, who whole? I
Speaker 1: think that's just some sneaky marketing. Caroline, get it. Things
Speaker 1: that are full of nutrients, not just replacing cookies with
Speaker 1: other cookies. So in a way, then you could argue that,
Speaker 1: you know, at least this trend is better than a
Speaker 1: snack Whells cookie. Well, I think yeah, And I think
Speaker 1: if you're smart about it, it can be. If you're
Speaker 1: just drinking like apple and pear juice, No, because who
Speaker 1: was it in one source when you're reading about it,
Speaker 1: was like you might as well just call it the
Speaker 1: tobler and diet. If you're just drinking juice like sugar
Speaker 1: late and juice all the time. If you're smart about it,
Speaker 1: and you're drinking something as a supplement, maybe maybe maybe
Speaker 1: a kale kaleful juice that your fiance makes in the morning,
Speaker 1: Maybe a kaleful juice, maybe something with with protein in it,
Speaker 1: so that you're not starving to death and lashing out
Speaker 1: at your co workers. I mean, I don't do that.
Speaker 1: I don't have to worry about not eating. But there
Speaker 1: are plenty of celebrities who advocate the more extreme stuff,
Speaker 1: the actual cleanses and fast as opposed to just like
Speaker 1: picking yourself up a healthy juice to supplement a breakfast
Speaker 1: or something. And the variety of these different kinds of
Speaker 1: juicing programs seem to all involve very similar kinds of
Speaker 1: juices kind of goes to show just how big this
Speaker 1: industry has gotten. I mean, way back when Oprah did
Speaker 1: the twenty one day Cleanse, But now you have people
Speaker 1: like one of Paltrow and Alicia's Silverstone who are all
Speaker 1: about something called organic avenue, while Mariska Harga Day is
Speaker 1: all about the clean program. And then finally Salmahiak helps
Speaker 1: start Cooler cleanse, and it's all the same kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Where you buy these almost juice packs for your day
Speaker 1: or week where you have like X number of juices
Speaker 1: that you drink throughout the day and in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways that replaces food. Yeah, and there's another one
Speaker 1: called Blueprint Cleans, which is one that Sarah Jessica Parker
Speaker 1: does that also involves getting Colon X, which reminded me
Speaker 1: of the Master Cleans, which like, oh yeah, just drink
Speaker 1: this this lemon water, but also take your laxative ladies. Uh.
Speaker 1: Blueprint Cleans scares me a little because they made a
Speaker 1: shady like, kind of not quite direct claim that quote
Speaker 1: clients who have more serious cases or are using Blueprint
Speaker 1: Cleans and cancer therapy have continued on a cleanse indefinitely
Speaker 1: until they are healed. And so that gives me all
Speaker 1: of the gross field that they are potentially trying to
Speaker 1: paint juice drinkers as being literally healed of their diseases
Speaker 1: by juice um. BPCS founders sold this company in for
Speaker 1: twenty five million dollars. This is huge business. But this
Speaker 1: is also the same regiment that Judith Newman followed for
Speaker 1: her hilarious New York Times piece in October. She says,
Speaker 1: a month ago I went on a juice cleanse. You
Speaker 1: know what It cleans out of you, the will to live,
Speaker 1: because these things you're not you're not eating, like you said,
Speaker 1: You're getting these packs of juice for however many days
Speaker 1: or a week or whatever, and you're just supposed to
Speaker 1: kind of deal with feeling awful until you hit that
Speaker 1: like hungry euphoria. Yeah, and having gone through that cleans
Speaker 1: Newman's theory is that juices are popular because it's convenient
Speaker 1: and comforting in a way in addition to being chic
Speaker 1: and on trend. So again, it is a status symbol.
Speaker 1: And yeah, she's also specifically referring to these programs where
Speaker 1: you have it shippy or you pick it up or whatever.
Speaker 1: Hence the convenience not buying yourself a neutral bullet or
Speaker 1: a Norwalk juicer and juicing everything yourself at home. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I think it's pretty clear by this point that
Speaker 1: we are skeptics of not just the essence of juicing.
Speaker 1: There's something wrong with having juice, but this idea that
Speaker 1: juicing can truly detoxify your body, and it's something that
Speaker 1: we really need to have to make sure that we're
Speaker 1: ship shape inside and out and We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about the science of that when we come it right
Speaker 1: back from a quick break. Okay, so you you sort
Speaker 1: of picked up on how Kristen and I feel about
Speaker 1: juice clean's culture. Um, I'm a part of it, yes, lightly,
Speaker 1: as we've established Christen Well, I am too. I'm on
Speaker 1: the margins on thes. But you're okay, here's the thing
Speaker 1: that you are not giving up your entire diet, Like
Speaker 1: you're not stopping eating and just drinking lemon water. No. No,
Speaker 1: it's something that I will have in the morning as
Speaker 1: part of breakfast or after I buy come from work
Speaker 1: or go on a run to recharge me. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: And I like, I like a good healthy juice with
Speaker 1: like a granola bar or something as a breakfast, the
Speaker 1: breakfast option, the good breakfast option. But in terms of
Speaker 1: those juice cleanses that are so all the rage among celebrities,
Speaker 1: female celebrities, you don't hear about too many men doing
Speaker 1: juice cleanses. Uh. Most health professionals you hear from will
Speaker 1: at best say they are a waste of time. Uh.
Speaker 1: Michael Gershon, who is a pathology and cell biology professor
Speaker 1: at Columbia University, told New Republic that cleanses and their
Speaker 1: partners in crime. Colonics are about a valid a like
Speaker 1: life method as self flagellation by monks who would be
Speaker 1: trying to avoid the plague. Like, if I just punish
Speaker 1: myself enough, I won't die of the plague. Tell us
Speaker 1: how you really feel, Gershon, Although I mean that is
Speaker 1: the tone of most doctors and scientists, like when they're
Speaker 1: asked about juice, it's kind of like, oh no, no,
Speaker 1: please no, because the thing that juice leaves out that
Speaker 1: you talked about earlier in the podcast Caroline, is the
Speaker 1: fact that we need protein to fill us up and
Speaker 1: maintain our metabolism. So doctor and documentarian Michael Mosley said, quote,
Speaker 1: unless you have adequate amounts of it it being protein,
Speaker 1: within twenty four hours, your body starts to cannibalize itself
Speaker 1: and get protein from your muscles. Obviously, your juice diet
Speaker 1: has zero protein, so you might lose a little bit
Speaker 1: of fat, but you're also going to start losing muscle,
Speaker 1: and if you lose your muscle, then your metabolic rate
Speaker 1: is going to go down. So that doesn't really seem
Speaker 1: like it's going to pay off in the long run.
Speaker 1: You're sort of shooting yourself in the foot. But I mean,
Speaker 1: how is that different than from any of the like
Speaker 1: diets from the nineties that we now know are unhealthy
Speaker 1: things that involve crash dieting and losing a bunch of
Speaker 1: weight all at once, only to gain it all back.
Speaker 1: It's it's all deprivation in the name of trying to
Speaker 1: be healthy, but really trying to lose weight. And is
Speaker 1: it any better for us? Is drinking juice, whether it's
Speaker 1: vegetable juice, fruit juice, and so the two. Is it
Speaker 1: any better than just having a salad? Like, yes, you
Speaker 1: get several pounds of the fruits and vegetables in your smoothie,
Speaker 1: but is it any better? Does it help us actually
Speaker 1: absorb whatever nutrients and minerals and vitamins are in the food?
Speaker 1: Anat better? It's something that Lisassessment, who's the author of
Speaker 1: the Cold Press Juice Bible, says the jury is still
Speaker 1: out on She's like, who knows if it's easier to
Speaker 1: get nutrients in liquid form, you know, or if there's
Speaker 1: any advantage in giving your digestive system a break from
Speaker 1: working on fiber. And of course other health professionals are like, no, no,
Speaker 1: there's no such thing as giving your body a break
Speaker 1: from fiber. Don't be ridiculous. Who was this jury who's
Speaker 1: still out? Yeah. Dana Hunts, who's a senior dietitian at
Speaker 1: the Ronald Reagan u c l A Medical Center, said that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's healthier to eat food and get that fiber and
Speaker 1: other things like it's good for your body to to
Speaker 1: choose some food and have to break down some cellulose
Speaker 1: and other fun things as you digest. Yeah, and plus
Speaker 1: you need as robber letst dig the author of Fat Chance,
Speaker 1: The Hidden Truth about Sugar Abcity and Disease, said it's
Speaker 1: good to have both soluble and insoluble fiber when they're
Speaker 1: eaten together. These two types work together to slow that
Speaker 1: absorption of sugar, so you're not getting like a total
Speaker 1: gut punch of fruit sugar all at once. And because
Speaker 1: it's important to keep in mind people that one sixteen
Speaker 1: ounce bottle of juice can run you like two hundred calories.
Speaker 1: So you're getting this big hit of sugar, you're getting
Speaker 1: a bunch of acid that could wear down the enamel
Speaker 1: of your teeth. And if you're thinking that, you're just
Speaker 1: like going to drink juice instead of coke and that
Speaker 1: it's going to be better for you. Well, that's still
Speaker 1: like a huge hit of calorie. So if you are
Speaker 1: trying to diet, you're not exactly cutting back by drinking juice.
Speaker 1: But if you are exclusively drinking juice, if you are
Speaker 1: eliminating food from your diet and sebbing it with juice
Speaker 1: then and going on a so called cleanse, yeah you might.
Speaker 1: You might drop some pounds, but you're also really going
Speaker 1: to stress out your body, especially if you have conditions
Speaker 1: like diabetes, heart or kidney disease or digestive issues, because
Speaker 1: this tinkers with your electrolyte and blood sugar balance. Is
Speaker 1: going to get that all out of whack, and you
Speaker 1: can experience vitamin and mineral deficiencies and muscle breakdowns, and
Speaker 1: not to mention, your body can go into starvation mode.
Speaker 1: Oh and even if you do lose a bunch of
Speaker 1: weight from your juice clan slash not eating, you're gonna
Speaker 1: gain it right back as soon as you introduce solid foods. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's something, Uh, there's this issue of ketosis that
Speaker 1: comes up a lot when you read about diets like this.
Speaker 1: I've read about it in trying to study Hashimoto's disease,
Speaker 1: which I have. UM. But so you know that euphoric
Speaker 1: feeling that people on juice fasts tend to report, like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I got today four and I'm seeing angels.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Well, it could be a placebo factor, just
Speaker 1: plane run of the mill hallucination um or it could
Speaker 1: actually be your body going into survival mode if you're
Speaker 1: not getting enough calories and carbohydrates. So basically your body
Speaker 1: creates these things called ketones as it burns fat rather
Speaker 1: than carbohydrates for energy. Too much of this can lead
Speaker 1: to dehydration. Not a big deal, I'll just drink some water. Well,
Speaker 1: it can also alter the chemical balance of your blood
Speaker 1: and even lead to a coma. And this is a
Speaker 1: normal yes, ketos, this is part of a normal body process.
Speaker 1: But it can really screw you up if you're diabetic.
Speaker 1: This is not something you just want to embark on
Speaker 1: by yourself without consulting a doctor, especially if you have
Speaker 1: some of those pre existing health conditions that Kristen mentioned.
Speaker 1: And you often hear this idea of letting your insides
Speaker 1: rest and it's good to drink exclusively juice because you
Speaker 1: need to give your large intestine a break. But that's
Speaker 1: not a thing the idea of gut rest because your
Speaker 1: body functions better with a consistent stream of nutrient and
Speaker 1: fiber rich foods, so depriving it can actually make the
Speaker 1: colon's nerves and muscles stop functioning, and that could lead
Speaker 1: to something called irreversible constipation. She's awful. I mean, how
Speaker 1: does celebrities do it, Caroline? Oh? Yeah, they also have
Speaker 1: like trainers and dietitians and yeah they have a staff.
Speaker 1: They have a staff on people. Why can't we have staff?
Speaker 1: I ask myself that every day. Um. But the whole
Speaker 1: thing about experiencing these colon problems when you're on a
Speaker 1: juice fast is that it can also these are also
Speaker 1: problems that people with eating disorders see, things like anorexia,
Speaker 1: and that is a big issue when you get down
Speaker 1: to the nitty gritty of talking about juice cleanses and
Speaker 1: juice fast because embarking on this sort of disciplined deprivation
Speaker 1: regimen can really stress your relationship with food. It can
Speaker 1: foster or further a disordered relationship with food, and this
Speaker 1: is something that Linda Antinora, a nutrition specialist, at Brigham
Speaker 1: and Women's Hospital in Boston pointed out. She says, there's
Speaker 1: certainly commonalities if we consider who is likely to develop
Speaker 1: an eating disorder and who is likely to undergo a cleanse.
Speaker 1: The diets seemed compulsive and perhaps addictive. The restrictive tone
Speaker 1: is the same, and she goes on to say that
Speaker 1: it worries her how juicers might quote unquote get hooked
Speaker 1: on that immediate gratification of weight loss, because you, I mean,
Speaker 1: you do kind of see those not insta results, but
Speaker 1: after a couple of weeks results sure, and suddenly you
Speaker 1: can fit into those clothes that you wanted to um.
Speaker 1: And Polling Powers, who's the head of the Scientific Advisory
Speaker 1: Committee for the Global Foundation for Eating Disorders, has even
Speaker 1: stronger words for juice cleansing, calling it quote the perfect
Speaker 1: pathway too disordered eating because think about it, you're being
Speaker 1: so disciplined, You're being exhibiting so much willpower and self control.
Speaker 1: Not so differently from people in ancient cultures who would
Speaker 1: fast for religious purposes, but these eating disorder experts, we're
Speaker 1: talking about this sense of superiority that comes from controlling
Speaker 1: your diet in this way that it almost becomes a
Speaker 1: part of your identity, whether it's regular cleansing or actual
Speaker 1: eating disorders. That makes this whole culture hard to escape.
Speaker 1: But the thing is people don't approve of anorexia on
Speaker 1: a social level. Cleansing, juice cleansing, and juice fast are
Speaker 1: so socially acceptable. Yeah, I mean you're almost rewarded for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh I did the Master cleanse. How did you do it?
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Look at all the weight you lost. Good
Speaker 1: for you? Oh wait, I was only subsisting on lemon
Speaker 1: juice for twenty one days? Yeah? Or how is it
Speaker 1: twenty one days? Ten days? Up? And writing about this
Speaker 1: over at the Cut, Vanessa Grigoriata said, food is a
Speaker 1: focus of an enormous amount of modern moralism, and it's
Speaker 1: it gets to all of the stuff that we're talking about,
Speaker 1: where we have equated health and thinness and we rewarded,
Speaker 1: and especially when you have that self control element added
Speaker 1: to it, where it's like I go to my soul
Speaker 1: cycle class and then I juice and then I'm not
Speaker 1: doing much beyond that to supplement my body. And there's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong in its essence with consuming a juice, going
Speaker 1: to a fitness class, whatever it might be trying to
Speaker 1: have a healthy lifestyle. But I do think that we,
Speaker 1: you know, can get ourselves into a very disordered relationship
Speaker 1: if we're not careful with how we're monitoring our bodies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And she also pointed out that it has a lot
Speaker 1: to do the idea of like washing out our insides
Speaker 1: with like pink sludge. She says that that ties into
Speaker 1: this very American idea of hygiene. You know, we spend
Speaker 1: more money than anybody else on soaps and antibacterial products
Speaker 1: and things like that, and this idea of like I'm
Speaker 1: going to be healthy because I'm going to be thin,
Speaker 1: and because I'm thin, that makes me good and self
Speaker 1: control and clean. I'm going to be so clean on
Speaker 1: the inside, never mind the fact that your body is
Speaker 1: covered in bajillions of bacteria just naturally. And it reminds
Speaker 1: me of Judith Newman calling juice cleansing comforting, because the
Speaker 1: way I've heard it talked about anecdotally among girlfriends of
Speaker 1: mine is it always comes on the heels of some
Speaker 1: kind of bender, whether it's been the holidays and you've
Speaker 1: eaten too much, everyone's having a party, so afterwards you
Speaker 1: just need to clean out your body or someone who's
Speaker 1: just been you've just you've just been eating and drinking
Speaker 1: too much and consuming a lot of booze, even perhaps
Speaker 1: consuming a lot of drugs. Well, what is the solution,
Speaker 1: What is the way for you to feel good about
Speaker 1: yourself again? Exercise that will power and go on a
Speaker 1: cleanse and flush out those toxins. Which that it's not
Speaker 1: actually what happens, that's not how that works. That's one
Speaker 1: of the I guess bones that health professionals have to
Speaker 1: pick with this whole cleansed culture. It's this idea of
Speaker 1: quote unquote toxins. It's the same thing that we've seen
Speaker 1: forever in our culture of of like snake oil salesman
Speaker 1: trying to convince you of how unhealthy your lifestyle is
Speaker 1: and how you need their product. And it's funny too,
Speaker 1: because you see the language that so many people who
Speaker 1: are trying to sell you juices and juicers. So much
Speaker 1: of the language that they use is like, watch out
Speaker 1: what people are trying to sell you. If somebody's just
Speaker 1: trying to make money off of you, pay attention to
Speaker 1: what it is. You know, blah blah blah, And it's like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're doing that too, because you've got people like the
Speaker 1: food babe who's trying to sell She's a total nut job.
Speaker 1: She's trying to sell you meal, plants and supplements, but
Speaker 1: she's also trying to convince you that like the same
Speaker 1: stuff that's in your yoga mats in your bread. And
Speaker 1: it's like, lady, there's more to it than that. She
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people out there who are just
Speaker 1: spouting all of this pseudoscience to scare you into buying products.
Speaker 1: And part of that is talking about toxins. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: these cleanses will tout its ability to flush toxins as
Speaker 1: if your body is a giant toilet um and help
Speaker 1: the liver rest and also hit the reset button on diseases,
Speaker 1: skin conditions, for molombalances, brain fog, et cetera. And while yes,
Speaker 1: eating better and like paying attention to how you're treating
Speaker 1: your body can certainly make you feel better and improve
Speaker 1: health conditions and your skin and things like that, but
Speaker 1: it's worth remembering that these juices also are likely to
Speaker 1: contain pesticides from non organic produce, and your body also
Speaker 1: creates its own so called toxins. Yeah, this is coming
Speaker 1: from dietitian Tamera duk Er Freeman at US News and
Speaker 1: World Report. She talks about how the metabolic byproducts of
Speaker 1: foods we eat, like nitro, say means from processed meat, preservatives,
Speaker 1: or ammonia from protein are floating around in your inside.
Speaker 1: They just happen. It's it's part of the metabolic process
Speaker 1: that certain byproducts are created. But you have an entire
Speaker 1: cleanup crew built into you to deal with these byproducts
Speaker 1: and turn them into safe things that can then be excreted.
Speaker 1: You mean we do have our own staff. We we do.
Speaker 1: I like to picture like the janitor from the Simpsons
Speaker 1: with the mustache and like the broom and that's your kidneys.
Speaker 1: The weekend again can help the broom get ready. And
Speaker 1: if you want to be smart, and you do want
Speaker 1: to quote unquote detox, I'm using that again with heavy
Speaker 1: air quotes. What helps is not juice, but fiber to
Speaker 1: clear out all that waste from the byproducts of the
Speaker 1: stuff you put in your body. Eat things like broccoli, cabbage,
Speaker 1: and cauliflower. These vegetables keep your liver swimming in a
Speaker 1: quote megapotent detoxifer called glutathione, and also just keeping your
Speaker 1: blood sugar levels low can do a solid for your kidney. Janitors,
Speaker 1: And if there's any kind of self control, we need
Speaker 1: to be exerting over our diets. If you really want
Speaker 1: to cleanse yourself, it's cutting back on things like alcohol, caffeine,
Speaker 1: excess sugar, unhealthy fats, processed foods, I know, all the
Speaker 1: things that make you know life really fun and delicious
Speaker 1: and intoxicating. Literally, yeah, just drink lots of water, get
Speaker 1: lots of sleep, eat a balance diet with plenty of
Speaker 1: fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grants, and healthy fats. I
Speaker 1: love a good avocado. Christy Tigan and I have that
Speaker 1: in common, if if nothing else. Um, And it's true
Speaker 1: that certain conditions can stress your liver. Obviously, we've talked
Speaker 1: about booze a couple of times. Alcoholism, obesity, and certain
Speaker 1: medications can really put a strain on your body. As
Speaker 1: janitors on your little cleanup crew in there. And yes,
Speaker 1: that is when you should go to a doctor, get
Speaker 1: your liver enzymes, test it, and work on improving your
Speaker 1: overall health. A juice cleanse is not the way to go,
Speaker 1: depriving yourself of vitamins and minerals. Just so that you
Speaker 1: can be like real angry to the people around you.
Speaker 1: Is not the solution. But if you do consume a
Speaker 1: juice as a supplement as a way to kind of
Speaker 1: kick start getting more fruits and veggies and nutrients into
Speaker 1: your diet, and that's okay, but it needs to be
Speaker 1: obviously more of a holistic approach rather than just a
Speaker 1: crash diet, because I mean it's wild though, considering how
Speaker 1: long we've been sold the same crash diet, going all
Speaker 1: the way back to Norman Walker and god Standley Burrows,
Speaker 1: he of the involuntary manslaughter charge. Yikes. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I think that using it as a supplement, like you said,
Speaker 1: especially if you're doing it at home with fruits and
Speaker 1: vegetables that you know where they came from and you've
Speaker 1: had control over what's going into your body, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that's that's great. That's that's healthy, And especially
Speaker 1: if you're doing nothing but eating like pretzels or cheetahs
Speaker 1: all day long, Yeah, juice could probably do you some good.
Speaker 1: I mean, fiance dumps pretzels and bacon into our morning,
Speaker 1: it's fine, just a little chunky, it's delicious. I am
Speaker 1: completely kidding, but I'm really curious to know if there
Speaker 1: are any listeners a who are hooked on juices, and
Speaker 1: there will be no juice judgment because I am among you, um,
Speaker 1: but also if there's anyone listening who works at a
Speaker 1: juice place. I just want to know firsthand your juice
Speaker 1: culture observations. But you see an over here, so many
Speaker 1: just very millennial conversations for lack of better term, right,
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Lulu Lemon in your store always. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. That's not the picture of the juicer I
Speaker 1: have in my head. I owe you thinking. I have
Speaker 1: a picture in my head of someone who is white, female, like,
Speaker 1: upper middle class, lots of disposable income, probably middle aged.
Speaker 1: Oh the middle introducer. Well, we need to know. Write
Speaker 1: us your letters mom Stuff at house stuff works dot
Speaker 1: com is our email address, or you can simply tweet
Speaker 1: us at mom Stuff podcast or messages on Facebook. And
Speaker 1: we've got a couple of messages to share with you
Speaker 1: right now. So I've got a Facebook message here from
Speaker 1: Julia writing about our maternity fashion episode, and she writes, Hello,
Speaker 1: Ce and C. I've loved the podcast for a few
Speaker 1: years now, your honorary friends to me, I really was
Speaker 1: looking forward to the maternity Fashion episode, but was a
Speaker 1: little disappointed that no mention was made of trans and
Speaker 1: gender queer folk. There are a few companies that are
Speaker 1: starting to serve the needs of communities that don't fit
Speaker 1: the stereotypical female presenting group, and I think it's very noteworthy.
Speaker 1: Butch Baby has been making a couple of headlines, and
Speaker 1: individual tailors and clothing lines are popping up here and
Speaker 1: there on Cafe Press. I'm a femistist myself, but couple
Speaker 1: of trans men and gender queer friends recently got pregnant,
Speaker 1: and as you said in the podcast, identity is really
Speaker 1: important during this time, especially so for people whose identity
Speaker 1: falls outside of social assumptions. For them, Flowey blouses and
Speaker 1: dresses not only clash with their style, but display and
Speaker 1: identity that they may have been trying to distance themselves
Speaker 1: from for years. Anyway, I just really thought this part
Speaker 1: of the maternity Where, or more broadly, pregnancy where, deserves
Speaker 1: some attention and hopefully the diversity of styles continues to grow.
Speaker 1: So thanks Julia for that insight, and I have a
Speaker 1: letter here from Evelyn. She says, I just wanted to
Speaker 1: write in and relate how the choice of maternity where
Speaker 1: for me has actually become something that is deep in
Speaker 1: my bomb with my own mother and my grandmother as well.
Speaker 1: Since I grew to my adult height, I've stayed roughly
Speaker 1: the same size as my mom. The major difference has
Speaker 1: always been our bellies. She simply carried a bit more
Speaker 1: weight around the middle after having three kids, or at
Speaker 1: least that's what she always told me. I had the
Speaker 1: larger hips, so our strategies for dressing our bodies has
Speaker 1: always had some small differences, despite both being on the
Speaker 1: petite side. My maternal grandmother is also about the same size,
Speaker 1: although she's an intro to shorter. This began to change
Speaker 1: once I began showing, when I started to feel a
Speaker 1: real need from eternity, where my mother's maternal instincts to
Speaker 1: dress her daughter kicked in as they have not done
Speaker 1: since my adolescence, because this was one thing she knew
Speaker 1: how to dress comfortably and elegantly around a belly. It
Speaker 1: began with loans of flowy shirts and dresses, of which
Speaker 1: my mother owns plenty. She opened her closet to me
Speaker 1: and allowed me to pick whatever appealed to me. This
Speaker 1: was not as difficult as one, but thinks since my
Speaker 1: mother remains in her early sixties or rather trendy woman.
Speaker 1: When my grandmother realized I'd begin accepting my mother's clothing,
Speaker 1: she didn't want to be left out either. Alas the
Speaker 1: generation fashion gap was a little too wide to cross,
Speaker 1: and I didn't end up observing as many pieces of
Speaker 1: clothing from her. But Grandma had another trick up her sleeve,
Speaker 1: her prowess as a seamstress. She was never a professional,
Speaker 1: but a mix of gender expectations in her generation and
Speaker 1: her own handiness with a needleman. She always altered her
Speaker 1: own clothing and that of her children, so she began
Speaker 1: altering items of clothing for me to make the more
Speaker 1: ample and more forgiving. Between loans and gifts from my
Speaker 1: mother and my grandmother, I definitely ended up saving a
Speaker 1: lot of money. Finally, when it reached the point where
Speaker 1: I just needed some pants and tights with more comfortable wastebands,
Speaker 1: I went to my first maternity shop with my mother,
Speaker 1: and she ended up buying as much as I did.
Speaker 1: She said the mix of comfort and style were rarely
Speaker 1: so well combined. I think what I've learned from this
Speaker 1: whole experience is that women's clothing before and after pregnancy
Speaker 1: is typically very unkind to women's bodies. Although it is
Speaker 1: your very informative podcast recounted maternity, where was sometimes created
Speaker 1: to hide the unseemliness of pregnancy, it's also a very
Speaker 1: special genre of clothing that begins with the idea of
Speaker 1: accommodating the eerconomic needs of a woman's body before pregnancy.
Speaker 1: I don't think I had learned to be kind to
Speaker 1: my own body in the way that my mother had
Speaker 1: learned to be kind to hers, and choosing a comfortable
Speaker 1: wardrobe that still reflected her personality. I still didn't agree
Speaker 1: with my mother on everything, including my sense of fashion,
Speaker 1: but I feel much closer to her in a new way,
Speaker 1: which is definitely an unexpected side effective maternity in many
Speaker 1: senses of the word. So thanks Evelyn, and thanks to
Speaker 1: everybody who's written. End to us mom stuff at how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot Com is our email address and for
Speaker 1: links all of our social media as well as all
Speaker 1: of our blogs, videos and podcasts, including this one. So
Speaker 1: you can read more about the science or pseudo science
Speaker 1: of juicing, head on over to Stuff Mom Never Told
Speaker 1: You dot com for more on this and thousands of
Speaker 1: other topics. Is it how stuff works? Dot com