What is Galveston Diet, How Does it Work & What to Eat and Drink on Galveston Diet?

Galveston is intermittent fasting and an antiinflammatory approach that can be helpful to menopausal people in reducing weight more effectively. According to an official website, the Galveston diet is an evidence-based program that actually works.⁽¹⁾ It claims that women not only lose weight but also sleep better and have fewer hot flashes.

Haver’s Galveston diet program offers clients a subscription service. The program focus on three main areas that help balance hormone and maintain weight loss:

• Intermittent Fasting: It involves eating for 8 hours and fasting for the remaining 16 hours.
• Anti-inflammatory Nutrition: It encourages foods rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory abilities. This diet supports the guts and helps the body in working more effectively.
• Fuel Refocus: This program emphasizes stopping sugar addiction and carbohydrates.

Before beginning the diet it is important to get educated on the concepts and get prepared to change the mindset and attitude towards eating. Also, the pantries should be emptied of all the foods that are not permitted during dieting.

The focus of the Galveston diet is to eat anti-inflammatory foods and avoid foods containing added sugar and processed carbohydrates.

Foods included in the diet are:

• Proteins including salmon, eggs, quinoa, lean turkey, lean chicken, lean grass-fed beef, nitrate-free deli meats, and Greek yogurt.
• Fruits and vegetables including blueberries, strawberries, spinach, celery, cauliflower, cucumber, broccoli, raspberries, and tomatoes.
• Fats including pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pecans, avocado, almonds, and sesame seeds.

Foods to avoid while following the Galveston diet are:

• Processed and refined foods, which including pizza, candy, and white pasta
• Refined flours
• Sugary drinks and sodas
• Sugar and artificial sweeteners
• Fried foods
• Alcohol
• Cookies and pastries
• Processed meats with nitrates, sausages, burgers, and salami

Galveston diet applies different strategies to weight loss than just counting calories.

It involves a substantial amount of research on the eating plan’s core concept, which includes intermittent fasting and the importance of foods that promote the feeling of satiety and fullness.

A review done in 2017 indicated that the body compensated for calorie deficit dieting, reaching a set point when a person stops losing weight or regaining the lost weight.⁽²⁾ It shows the effect of the Galveston Diet’s approach that emphasizes the effects of food on the shifting of hormones and their contribution to weight gain during menopause.

A 2020 review of 27 trials on intermittent fasting for weight loss found that the participants lost 0.8%-013% of their body weight regardless of overall calorie intake.⁽³⁾

Another study done in 2013 on 115 women with excess weight showed that intermittent fasting over the period of 3 months and carbohydrate restriction caused more weight loss than eating a reduced-calorie diet.⁽⁴⁾

One more study done in 2019 used the same 16 hours of fasting period as the Galveston diet as a weight loss intervention for adults with obesity. It was observed that the waist size decreased by 5 cm after 3 months.⁽⁵⁾

Apart from reducing weight, the Galveston diet can have other health benefits, which include the following.

Intermittent fasting can be helpful in reducing inflammation in the body that arises from fat stores.⁽⁶⁾

The Galveston diet may even be effective in reducing insulin resistance and diabetes.

A review suggests that the anti-inflammatory effects of intermittent fasting help in preventing chronic conditions such as metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases.⁽⁷⁾

Intermittent fasting may counteract the damaging effects of oxidative stress that lead to free radicals that further leads to disease and aging.

Another review concluded that intermittent fasting may be helpful in preventing high blood pressure and cancer.⁽⁸⁾

The extra support and dietary element of the Galveston diet encourage people to try the diet and feel more motivated to stick to it. It may also engage people in physical activity more than they usually do.

Galveston diet supports the idea of intermittent fasting and an anti-inflammatory diet and is a more effective diet than the traditional calorie-reducing diets. It can be effective in losing weight and also helps in keeping a person healthy and also fighting against various chronic diseases. Some may find it a bit difficult to follow because of the food restriction and window of time in which eating is allowed.