Illustration by Kat Frick Miller
As someone who has been helping people improve their health with food for more than a decade, Toronto-based registered dietitian (RD) Abbey Sharp has answered a variety of questions, including whether stress is making you lose weight or gain weight and what she eats in a day, on her YouTube channel Abbey’s Kitchen. Using research from scientific journals, she informs her hundreds of thousands of followers about nutrition and eating habits.
Her main goal is to combat disinformation around diet culture.
In her late teens, Sharp experienced the dangers of faulty messaging around diet herself when she struggled with orthorexia. While it is not officially classified as an eating disorder, people with the condition are often overly concerned with the quality of food they put into their body. According to research by a group of psychologists from Dalhousie University in 2020, people living with orthorexia can have strict food rules, along with obsessions and compulsions around what they eat to the point that it dominates their lives and becomes clinically impairing.
Sharp’s condition began when she moved from Peterborough, Ont., to Toronto after high school. She consulted a naturopath who suggested she cut out sugar to help cure her symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.
“It started with a fear of sugar and went to fat, all the magazines at the time said it was bad,” Sharp said in an interview with The Globe.
Eventually, her list of “safe foods” became very narrow.
“My body shrank along with my list. … I was just so obsessed with this fear of what would happen if I ate these bad foods,” says Sharp.
Reflecting on her condition, she says she weighed less than 100 pounds by the time she sought help from a dietitian at 18.
Now a 37-year-old busy entrepreneur, YouTuber and mother of two, she takes an additive approach to her diet: She adds a source of fibre, protein and healthy fat to every meal she feeds herself and her family to get the micronutrients they need. She keeps her diet simple, opting mostly for whole foods and the regular splurge such as a trip to Eataly for fresh pasta, turkey meatballs and the grocery store’s tomato sauce, which she prepares at home with her kids.
“It’s now about food freedom. Your diet is the least interesting thing about you, but our culture makes it such a big part,” she says.
As for stress, whether or not it’s indeed making you gain or lose weight is complicated. In the 12-minute video on her page, Sharp cites around 10 studies, some of which show that cortisol, the hormone that regulates the body’s response to stress, actually breaks down fat; another that shows that high cortisol can result in more fat around the belly area; and another that concludes chronic stress disproportionately increases our cravings for food that are high in sugar and fat.
Dieting, she says in the video, is actually a stressor on the body itself. Her advice is it to take a gentle approach.
“Obsessing less about food opens your brain up and lets you grow as a person,” she adds.
How I save money on groceries: I save on all my pantry staples such as oats, beans and lentils, which I wait to buy on sale.
How I splurge on groceries: I splurge on fresh fish, such as salmon and cod. Frozen fish tends to get mushy, so it ends up getting tossed. I buy marinated protein, which can be costly, but saves me time at dinner. Occasionally, we splurge on a pint of ice cream from local shops, including Bang Bang Ice Cream. The peanut-butter-and-jelly flavour is my favourite.
The hardest shopping habit to keep up: As a busy person, it can be a challenge to get a solid 20 grams of protein per meal, to maintain my muscle mass. I have a protein shake daily and I also plan meals that are interesting, satisfy my goals and make everyone happy.
How I’ve changed my eating habits recently: We’ve cut back on red meat over the past few years. Legumes, dairy and fish have become our biggest protein sources.
Five items always in my cart:
- Cottage cheese – Nordica Lactose Free – $4.50: It’s a go-to item for a high-protein breakfast. I usually toss in a handful of berries or kiwis for fibre and top it off with some nuts for a healthy fat.
- Golden kiwis – Zespri – $6.50: I love kiwis, they’re a great source of fibre and highly nutritious. I love the golden ones, which you don’t even have to peel to eat.
- Brown sourdough bread – Blackbird Bakery – $6: I love this bread toasted with a smear of fruit preserves, whipped cottage cheese and some berries on top.
- Frozen cherries and wild blueberries – MacMillans Orchards – $4.99: I enjoy the fruit from this orchard in Ajax, Ont. My husband and I both grew up in Durham, going to MacMillans for fruit, dairy and everything, really. We actually shot our engagement photos there because it has sentimental meaning to us.
- Hemp hearts – Manitoba Harvest – $10: Hemp hearts are a great source of fibre and omega-3s. I toss it on most things, including my cottage cheese for breakfast, in a smoothie or even on a salad.
