Author Melissa Urban is coming back to Toledo to support her book, The New Whole30. A six-time New York Times bestselling author, host of Do The Thing podcast and a keynote speaker on health trends, Urban will be joined by another New York Times bestselling author, Danielle Walker, who has controlled her autoimmune disease through diet. They will both be at The Franciscan Center in Sylvania on Wednesday, Aug. 7.
Eating for health
Urban’s original book, Whole30, was first published in 2015 and has sold over a million copies. It’s not a diet book, though weight loss may be one of the program’s benefits, but rather a step-by-step plan that helps you achieve better health through eliminating foods to see if you feel better without them.
It’s designed to help you identify food cravings and sensitivities, and get you feeling better. Urban stresses that there are even more options for eating better than there were when she wrote her book in 2009. More doctors are suggesting eating differently for health and to find what works for us through eliminating foods from our diet temporarily to see if we feel better.
What’s new in The New Whole30?
Urban explains, “In 10 years there’s a lot that has changed. We have more science, more randomized controlled trials, and a better understanding about how some of these foods and ingredients work in the human body. It was important to me go back, considering all the new science, and make sure that the plan was as efficacious as possible. I think even more than that though, over the last ten years, I’ve evolved. I’ve been through a very public divorce and business split, I had a baby, I had a concussion a few years ago and have been navigating post-concussion syndrome. I’ve become far more empathetic with myself, have a better understanding of my own privilege and others’ lived experiences. The language that I’ve used to talk to Whole30ers has changed.”
Urban says she used to use a harder tough-love talk that, due to where she’s at in life now, she wouldn’t use today. The new book gave her a chance to change its tone of the book based on that evolution.
Danielle Walker
Diagnosed at age 22 with Ulcerative Colitis, an autoimmune disease, Walker suffered multiple hospitalizations with her doctors telling her that what she ate was not a factor in her disease. Finally, she took matters into her own hands, drastically changed her diet, and after trial and error, found a diet that works for her.
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Walker recognized how common it is for doctors to prioritize drugs over things like nutrition as a first defense rather than a last resort. Walker is living proof that advocating for yourself and listening to your own body is important. She is a self-taught chef and has written several cookbooks to help people with their own healthy eating journey.
The dream team: Urban and Walker
Urban and Walker are long-time friends. They’ve been in conversation before at events and are bringing that element back when visiting Sylvania. They present by interviewing each other, and Urban says that Walker has helped provide her with resources for The New Whole30.
They’ll talk about food and recipes, though they also leave a good amount of time for Q&A with the audience. For vegans, Urban also has a vegan section in her book. There will also be some great food samples given out at the event. Urban explains that their tour is sponsored by Chomps, a minority-owned, family-owned company. They make beef, turkey and venison snack sticks and they’ll be giving samples to the audience.
Health is the goal
Urban stresses that health is the goal, not necessarily weight loss. “We’ve been indoctrinated by diet culture that a thinner person is more worthy. It moralizes food, and assumes thin people are always healthier. Quick-fix diets are always what we had growing up. They involve restriction, eating according to someone else’s rules, not eating enough and tuning out the signals your body is sending you. When the weight loss diet is over you’re dumped back into your life with a ‘good luck,'” Urban said.
Quick-fix diets set people up for failure. Whole30 doesn’t do that, says Urban. “It’s an elimination and reintroduction diet designed to find food sensitivities, create new habits and better your relationship with food. There’s so much more that can happen when you change the food you put on your plate. Those changes can include better sleep, digestion, energy, less aches and pains, migraines and allergies.”
An Evening with Melissa Urban and Danielle Walker is possible through a partnership of Starlite Theater Group, Lourdes University and Finch & Fern Book Co. and is sponsored by Anderson/Miller Insurance and the Taylor Automotive Family. Tickets are available online at starlitetheatergroup.org or at Finch & Fern in Sylvania.
