To me, it's also feminist. I said as much to Alyssa Edwards on In The Room, On Purpose, in a long, honest conversation about food, shame, and why weight feels so complicated for women. We talked for over an hour, and I said some things even long-term readers may not have heard. You are supposed to want the donut. Your evolutionary purpose is to want the donut. I want the donut too. I just don'...

A reader sent me a question last week that I suspect a lot of you have been wondering about. She wrote that she runs a whole-foods home. She's been following along with the processing framework. And she's noticed something: she can't keep coconut sugar, honey, or maple syrup in the house. She goes overboard. So does her 3-year-old. But a few drops of monk fruit sweetener (the kind blended with ...

Specifically, how much of our understanding of weight and healthy living relies on willpower, and how it's the hidden force that sabotages every effort. We aren't designed as human beings to resist pleasurable foods, even if we know that consuming them will be hard on our psyches and bodies. My thesis is that reliance on willpower is the underlying cause of lifetimes of dieting failures, weigh...