My Diet History
My name is Darya Pino and I am the creator of Summer Tomato. I’m a scientist, foodie and lover of local, seasonal foods. I also strive to be healthy, happy and eat amazing food no matter how busy my life is.
Currently I am working on my PhD in neuroscience at UC San Francisco, hoping to finish up this year. I also blog full time here at Summer Tomato and occasionally at The Huffington Post. I also write for Edible San Francisco. I was a long time columnist and nutrition editor for the UCSF newspaper, Synapse, where I spent several years as science editor as well. I received my undergraduate degree in Molecular and Cell Biology from Berkeley, and was recognized as one of the top students in my graduating class of 2003.
For the past 8 years I have studied basic science in labs at both UC Berkeley and UCSF. I have worked extensively with both human subjects and experimental animals, using a wide range of scientific techniques to explore the basic biological functions of the brain.
Originally my plan was to go into medicine (well, after I switched majors from English literature to biology in my 4th year of college–I graduated in 6) because I wanted to help people with diseases of the mind. However after a little digging I learned that there were no cures and very few effective treatments for the kinds of diseases I was interested in. I then questioned how satisfied I would be in medicine and opted instead to go into research.
Thus I began my career believing science would be the answer to curing disease and keeping us healthy.
But while many brilliant people are making key discoveries in health every year, ultimately I realized science wasn’t the answer I was looking for either–at least not in the way I had envisioned. This is because in large part, the questions I hoped to answer have already been solved.
Over the past 3 years I’ve used my training in biology to discover a rich body of scientific literature on how to prevent and cure almost all of the major diseases that plague our modern society, including some neurodegenerative diseases.
It turns out the answer is simple. The answer is food.
But to understand how I got to this answer, you need to know a little about my past.
I had my first SlimFast breakfast at age 11
One morning in 6th grade I walked into the kitchen to find my mother furiously grinding something in the blender. I asked her what it was and she explained it was a diet shake so she could lose weight (my mom was far from overweight). She offered me some. It tasted awful, but I was happy to share it with her.
I had SlimFast or comparable diet shake for breakfast every day for the next several years. 12 months later I joined my first gym.
Back then, 11 year-olds did not need to think about diet and weight, and I was no different. I just wanted to be like my mother. I had seen the commercials and thought, “what could be wrong with staying slim?” In retrospect however, this habit marked the beginning of a dangerous trend of chronic dieting that resulted in over a decade of body image issues and worse, poor nutrition.
Since then I have tried and succeeded at every diet under the sun. In high school I got really into ballet and cut all fat out of my diet. I mean completely. I ate less than 10 grams of fat a month (in my mind I ate zero), and was very, very thin.
I distinctly remember my father once asking a doctor if this was alright, whether or not I needed to eat more fat than this. The doctor assured my dad that I was fine and the human body needed very little fat. This was how my life continued until college.
At Berkeley I embraced the typical freshman burrito diet
Having given up dancing to follow an academic path, there was no more pressure on me to be super skinny. Moreover, I had never cooked anything in my entire life and had no idea how to work a stove. I could handle the refrigerator and microwave. I could boil water, heat up soup, etc. But if anything required ingredients other than a can opener, it was not an edible option for me.
I subsisted almost exclusively on take-out college food, which I thought was delicious.
Two years and 25 pounds later, the ballerina in me took a good look at my thighs and wanted a change. It was around the same time I heard about the Atkins “low-carb” diet.
I was skeptical, but a friend of mine had an uncle who was a doctor (doctors know everything right?) that told him the diet did work but that it required zero carbohydrates coming in, and the only thing that didn’t have carbs was meat. Everything else, including fruits and vegetables, was off limits.
This sounded perfectly reasonable to us, so we decided to try it for a few weeks to see if anything happened.
For two weeks I ate nothing but meat, cheese and eggs
After about 15 days I was so desperate for something green I went to Café Intermezzo (home of the original Berkeley giant salad) and ate several pounds of salad as quickly as I could. I was so relieved to have vegetables I didn’t even feel sick after eating so much.
The experiment was a success however. I had lost about ten pounds and (besides craving vegetables) felt great. I knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain this diet forever, but I told myself if I ever wanted to look really great for an event, I would do this for two weeks before and get into shape. This is how I envisioned the future of my health and physique.
Still, the diet was so successful I tried to eat as few carbs as possible from then on. No rice, no bread, no pasta. Ever.
I stayed slightly thinner on this diet, but still wasn’t happy with the way I looked.
One day at work (student library job), a friend mentioned in passing that she had started running every morning. This concept was baffling to me. Every day? Run? Wow, I had never even considered that option. But runners are definitely thin (she sure was).
I reasoned: If running every day is even possible, maybe I can do it!
I started running 10 minutes every morning
This change was tough for me because I had always been a terrible runner. But I knew that if I was going to stick to it, I couldn’t demand much of myself except consistency. The first day I told myself I would just run until I was tired. Now that I know running and distances better (I have since run several marathons), I’d say I ran half a mile that day. But I didn’t let that deter me.
If there was one morning I couldn’t run, that was okay so long as I definitely went the next day. If I was tired one day, I would do a shorter run. I figured I would get stronger with time. This was true.
I became a dedicated runner. I ran almost every morning, even for the year I lived in Italy and it snowed through the winter (I started eating carbs again while I was there–no escaping the pasta and pizza in Italia!).
I kept this up for a couple years, and did lose weight and look better. But I was still only about 8-10 pounds from my max weight and one size smaller.
When I returned from Italy I found my local gym and integrated light free weights into my routine. I was a little nervous about getting big arms (ha!), but some great looking girls I knew did it so I figured it couldn’t be all bad. By then I was running three miles a day.
The next year some stress in my personal life caused me to drop 15 lbs
Not everyone loses weight when they are under severe stress–some people gain weight–but I definitely lose it. When something heavy is on my mind I forget to eat. During this period I was subsisting on peanut butter and crackers, and a small dinner of either stir-fried chicken and vegetables with rice or spaghetti with red sauce. (I learned how to work a stove in Italy).
I lost weight by unintentionally eating less, but secretly I loved it. I felt and looked great (except for the depression).
When I regained my happiness I intended to keep the weight off. Morning was a diet shake in a can or Zone bar. Lunch was a Diet Coke. Dinner was a large salad.
I stuck to this diet (if you can call it that) with heroic tenacity, but eventually I did regain some weight.
This is when I remembered the Atkins diet
By now it was 2002 and the low-carb craze was in full effect. And this time there was a whole “science” lore behind the diet to reaffirm my belief in it. Ketosis! This is what I need!
I stuck to the Atkins diet for several months and was able to reacquire and maintain my thin physique, but eventually it became less effective and the weight started creeping back on.
I heard about the South Beach diet around this time and decided it was worth a try. The South Beach diet appealed to me because it was more lenient than Atkins, but in a way I thought was reasonable.
Dieting has never been difficult for me
I am one of those people with an iron will. Give me a diet and I will conquer it. I will lose weight.
I stuck to the South Beach diet perfectly. I was thin, my cooking skills improved, but there was never any doubt that I was on a diet. I was always on a diet. Diet was life.
On the South Beach diet I developed a routine of eating my favorite low-carb foods. Weight was never easy to keep off (you can never cheat on a low-carb diet), and I measured my failures and successes by the day and week. If I went out with friends and ate too much (a piece of bread, for example) the next day I would spend hours at the gym to “work it off.”
I must admit, this method almost works. But there are two big problems with it: 1) Dieting and exercise take up a huge portion of your life and create a high-anxiety relationship with food, and 2) The diet lacked sufficient nutrient variety–especially whole grains–to promote good health.
Someone with will power like mine can succeed on a permanent low-carb diet, but it is a constant battle and the health value (I have since learned) is questionable.
I may have maintained these habits forever if I hadn’t discovered San Francisco’s fine dining scene immediately after graduating from Berkeley.
After fighting food my entire life, I discovered I love it
Something remarkable happened after my first truly exquisite dining experience in San Francisco: I could never go back to mediocre food.
I found myself going out to nice to restaurants on a regular basis, sometimes more than once a week. The only problem was I still lived on a student salary (and credit cards) and was eating like a princess. It did not take me long to realize this wasn’t sustainable.
What to do?
Faced with the challenge of needing delicious, affordable food there was only one logical answer: My cooking skills needed to improve!
The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market changed my life
I had heard a rumor somewhere that San Francisco had a great farmers market. I also vaguely remembered that Alice Waters, founder and co-owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley (another new discovery of mine) credited much of her magic to using farm-fresh ingredients. If I was going to cook great food, I certainly needed to find great ingredients.
It just so happened that the first time I headed there it was mid-summer, tomato season. At the time, tomatoes were a complete mystery to me. The ones I remembered eating off my grandma’s vine growing up were some of the most amazing I had ever tasted. Yet tomatoes from the grocery store were inevitably disgusting. How could this difference be so huge?
Deep down I figured it had something to do with the tomatoes being home grown, so I had always secretly hoped I could find my long-lost childhood tomatoes one day at a farmers market (or another friend’s vine).
Even with all the anticipation built up over the years I was unprepared for the wave of pleasure and nostalgia that overwhelmed me when I tried the tomato sample I was offered that first Saturday. I had read Proust, but I have to believe this tomato was a thousand times better than his Madeline with tea. What he missed out on!
My complete transition to farmers market shopping was still a long ways off, but from this day forward I was a believer. The grocery store is no substitute for the farmers market, and the meals I cooked from then on were at a whole new level.
It was hard enough to manage my weight when I was on a strict perma-diet. It was impossible to stay thin eating at San Francisco’s finest on a regular basis (don’t think I had completely given up my dining out habits).
Around the time I was applying to graduate school I got really into running and, after a mishap that involved an accidental 8 mile run, I decided I would try training for a marathon. Another friend had mentioned in passing that she was training for the Boston marathon and (again) the craziness of the whole idea intrigued me.
Nothing could have sounded more insane than intentionally running 26.2 miles, but I remembered thinking the same thing about running every day and look how far I had come! Anything was possible, I decided. Indeed, I was right.
But there was another force at work in my decision. Marathon runners are super skinny (at least the ones I had seen in the Olympics). It occurred to me that maybe I could get back in really great shape like I was in my ballet days!
I now know it doesn’t work that way. Training makes you hungry; long runs make you starving. Whatever I burned off in my runs I easily consumed afterward. Who would have guessed it possible to gain weight while training for a marathon? Ok, maybe I didn’t gain a lot, but I definitely didn’t lose any weight. It turns out, few people do.
Things went on like this for a couple years. I dieted and ran and struggled with my weight and size. I wouldn’t have called myself fat, but I had huge legs, thighs and calves. I wasn’t imagining it, people would comment about my “leg muscles.” My own grandmother once told me I looked like J Lo! From her tone I could tell it wasn’t a compliment either. I was crushed.
It is fair to say I was still carb-phobic during this time. Diet Cokes, salad and meat were pretty much all I ate. No rice or pasta, and very little bread (except for an occasional sandwich after a run). Once every week or two, I would find myself starving and end up going on a sort of mini-binge. This happened most often after a long run or a late night on the town. Pizza and burritos are hard to resist when you’re tired and hungry.
I had been in graduate school for about one year and was describing my struggles to a friend, the same friend that had eaten nothing but meat with me for two weeks. How could I still be struggling with this when I’m always dieting and running marathons?
His reply was simple, “You’re a scientist now, why don’t you figure it out?”
I had always read prolifically about diet trends and successes, but it hadn’t occurred to me that there was a science of weight loss. So I started digging.
I began reading scientific papers about how people successfully lose weight and keep it off. What do they really do? I thought I knew what to expect (“They eat low-carb, of course. Ketosis, duh.”), but I kept running into these two annoying words that poked holes in my whole plan: whole grains.
The thinnest people in the world eat whole grains. People who are successful at losing weight and keeping it off eat whole grains. And somewhere in my memories I recall that in one of my thinnest eras I was regularly eating rice and spaghetti (not whole grain, but carbs nonetheless).
Could it be that low-carb diets didn’t really work?
I think I would call this moment a leap of faith. I believed in science more than I believed in Dr. Atkins (who by now had tragically passed away and whose personal cardiac health was under increased scrutiny).
What if I started eating whole grains? Would I blow up like I do after having bread at a restaurant? I was skeptical, but I began the experiment. Oatmeal and whole grain breads (the same ones I currently do not eat) became my breakfast staples.
Miraculously I didn’t gain weight, I lost it. I felt less hungry, and I became a better runner. Adding even this small amount of whole grains to my diet significantly improved my quality of life.
The more I learned, the more my diet changed
I discovered something amazing while I was learning to lose weight. It turns out that the same diet that promotes fat loss can actually prevent and reverse almost all the major chronic diseases that research institutions like UCSF are trying to cure.
Aging and degenerative diseases have always fascinated me and were the subject of my research while I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley. There is a beautiful simplicity in that I found my way back to this subject on a seemingly unrelated personal quest to be free of diets.
Remarkably, what I learned is that the healthiest diet is based on a foundation of fresh, locally grown, organic vegetables. My farmers market!
The foodie in me now lives in peace with the fitness buff and the scientist
Finally all my passions are united into one common purpose: eating and enjoying the best foods on the planet. I also love sharing my knowledge with others and helping them find ways to embrace this amazing Healthstyle.
I read about food and health constantly, devouring as many studies, articles, books, blogs and podcasts as I can find on these subjects. Because of my training I am able to translate the complex science directly into information that helps you live healthier without the sensationalist, often confusing filter of the main stream media.
Since I buy and cook almost everything I eat, I am no slouch in the kitchen either. Simplicity is often the best way to go when you start with fabulous ingredients–it also comes in handy when you are in a hurry (as I almost always am).
My recipe ideas always start with treasures I find at the farmers market. If some kind of seasonal produce catches my eye, I will buy it even if I don’t know what it is or how to cook it. The internet contains a wealth of information and is an invaluable tool for any home cook.
Using predominantly online tools I’ve learned to search for and distill several different recipes for a single dish. This helps me identify the basic technique of whatever I want to cook. I can also make sure I have (and like) all the ingredients involved. For me the internet is more useful than any single cookbook could ever be.
I’m also always looking for fabulous restaurants that embrace seasonal cooking (almost all the best ones in major cities do). Not only are these establishments the best way to indulge, they are also a valuable source of flavor inspiration. Restaurants help me discover new food combinations I love so I can try to recreate them at home.
All my life I have strived to balance academic and professional success with personal health and fitness, and over the past two decades I have tried pretty much everything.
Ultimately it was my training in scientific research that convinced me the best way to optimize health, maintain productivity and look my best is to stay away from all diets and health trends and teach myself how to cook and eat real food (I wish I could say “again,” but I never really learned for a first time).
What started as a quest to lose weight ended up as a new healthy lifestyle that slashes disease risk and may actually slow aging.
This is my new Healthstyle.
Since I developed my current eating habits I have finally dropped those last 10 pounds and achieved my goal weight–a bit lower to be honest–by eating more and working out less than I ever have. I can navigate restaurants, office politics and holidays without fear of weight gain. And best of all, I still enjoy all my favorite foods in San Francisco and around the planet.
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