Along with some suspect fashion trends (visible thongs and low-rise jeans), the nineties and noughties gave a lot of us questionable eating habits.
In an effort to emulate the bodies of Kate Moss (skinny) and then Gisele (skinny with big boobs), lots of us adopted nutritionally inadvisable diets (cabbage soup) and embraced a world of rice cakes, calorie counting, zero-sugar sodas and low-fat everything.
Recently, I was on a health retreat with wellness influencers and journalists, women who have "glow with health" in their job description, and I was struck by how many of us were fighting against ingrained eating patterns, ones we have always believed are "good" and "slimming" but are actually unhealthy and can trigger weight gain.
In reality
In an illuminating one-to-one session with the nutritionist Rhian Stephenson, the founder of the supplement brand Artah and host of the retreat, she helped me see how many of my own habits were counterintuitive. And misery-making. She said: "Midlife women often adopt strategies that sabotage metabolism – using excessive artificial sweeteners, focusing on low-calorie, ultra-processed foods and remaining fearful of healthy fats."
Here, Rhian shares seven mistakes that midlifers (OK, many of us) often make in our diets.
Midlife diet mistakes
1. Skipping breakfast
"If you allow yourself to get chronically hungry, this can elevate cortisol, which directly drives fat storage. Deprivation can also disrupt the signalling of ghrelin [the hunger hormone] and leptin [the satiety hormone], making it harder for you to recognise fullness and increasing cravings for high-sugar or high-fat foods. Getting ravenous can also activate a 'binge-restrict' loop, where extreme hunger post-fasting leads to loss of control around food and repeated overconsumption."
2. Crash dieting
"Long-term chronic undereating can impede muscle mass, creating the opposite of the desired effect, because maintaining muscle mass is one of the most impactful things we can do to help with weight management or loss. Prolonged fasting also signals 'starvation mode' to the body, so it will reduce your metabolic rate and promote fat storage."
3. Eating fruit for breakfast
"Fruit is a great source of micronutrients and fibre, but relying solely on it for breakfast can be counterproductive for weight loss in the long term. It can cause blood-sugar spikes that affect focus, energy and metabolism, creating energy crashes within hours and amplifying cravings and overeating later in the day. It also lacks protein, and over time, this habit could accelerate muscle loss."
"Eating heavily late at night impairs fat metabolism and causes higher glucose spikes and lower insulin sensitivity than identical meals eaten earlier. It disrupts sleep, thanks to delayed melatonin release, which in turn elevates cortisol and the hunger hormone."
5. Believing "everything in moderation"
"This statement discounts the fact that so many ultra-processed foods are designed specifically to be over-consumed, so it's impossible to be moderate. This also leads to binging and the idea that it's your will power that failed."
6. Double down on your diet when it doesn't work
"We're unprepared for how much our metabolism changes over our lifetime, so we tend to overreact and try to be too restrictive or hardcore when what's worked previously doesn't anymore. This then leads to a cycle of imbalance."
7. Think alcohol doesn’t count
"I see a lot of women who are drinking too much alcohol in midlife – ten-plus units per week. This is counterproductive for weight management, and for every other aspect of long-term health when it comes to women."