Plexus and whole30

[Katiejs]

A few friends and I are starting the whole30 challenge next week. One of my friends drinks plexus slim and it has helped tremendously with her fibromyalgia pain. Plexus slim does contain stevia, and I told her it's not compliant with the whole30 but she is afraid to stop taking it because she doesn't want the pain to come back. Any thoughts on this?

[Physibeth]

I'm not super familiar with this supplement or with fibromyalgia but it definitely falls way outside of the realm of W30 compliance for more reasons than just the Stevia. Is she sure that it is the drink that has helped with her pain? Did she change anything else when she started taking it? Is this something that was prescribed by a doctor?

 

My advice would be for her to give the W30 a fair shake without the supplement, but is she really can't give it up making the other changes won't really hurt her and will probably help but she may not get the full benefit that she could get from doing a W30. I can imagine that if she could get the pain relief without the supplement that would be a huge cost benefit and lifestyle benefit to her long term. Only she can make the decision, this is just the advice I would give in this situation.

[Katiejs]

Thanks, that's what I figured. I let her borrow my "It starts with food" book, so I'm hoping that she will understand why the plexus is not compliant with the whole30. I'm just going to try and encourage her to do it without, but ultimately it's her decision-thanks again!

[Tom Denham]

The plexus marketers want people to think it is the solution and that you can't live with out it. However, if fibromyalgia responds to dietary interventions - and we hear that it does - the Whole30 will bring relief as your friends eats a good, low inflammatory diet. If she keeps drinking plexus while making the dietary changes, she may mistake how good she feels for the plexus and not for the dietary changes.

[jmcbn]

The light-headedness, sugar cravings, the not so good sleep & general lack of energy on your whole30 versus your experience with plexus may well ahve been due to something you were, or more likely weren't, eating. Can you recall what a typical day of food intake looked like for you?

I'm no medical expert & know very little about fibromyalgia but given the amount of reading I've done in and around nutrition over the past 8 or 9 years I'd opt for whole foods over a money spinning supplement every time!

[AmyS]

I hadn't heard of Plexus Slim, so I went to Dr. Google to read up. Here's the thing: Whole30 is precisely the opposite of Plexus Slim. Whole30 insists that eating real whole foods three times a day, in quantity, is the healthiest way to eat. Plexus Slim wants to sell you a drink that is supposed to replace some of your food. Whole30 wants you to chew your food. Plexus Slim wants you to drink it. Whole30 wants you to find your optimum state of bodily health. Plexus Slim wants you to do something they (and most of the diet industry) calls "lose weight." Whole30 really isn't about losing weight, though there are folks who report having done so on Whole30. We actually want you to eat whole foods and change your entire relationship with your body, trusting it to give you the best information possible about your own needs.

 

As to how Plexus Slim interacts with fibromyalgia, I have absolutely no clue how it might help. But I know the condition is sufficiently troublesome and mysterious that folks will try just about anything that works! I do think that trying a straight-up Whole30 without Plexus Slim might be a better way to gauge how the Whole30 itself works for a person with fibromyalgia. But relief from fibromyalgia symptoms, however strange or random the source might seems, is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

 

And in general, just remember. Plexus Slim and Whole30 are on exactly opposite sides on every question of nutrition, health, body composition, or how to treat yourself well in life.

[mallarally]

I will just say, because there seems to be confusion on what Plexus really is, that it is not actually the opposite of Whole 30, and that some people need more than the Whole 30 to deal with Fibromyalgia. Because Fibromyalgia does not have one culprit, it's unfair to say that a dietary change will fix all of it. 

I started on my first Whole 30 three years ago. I had tremendous success with it and found a lot of pain relief. I have consistently followed a Paleo/Whole 30 diet for about 2.5 years.  But I was still very, very limited for a long time. My chronic fatigue and Fibromyalgia were not allowing me to work full time. I also had severe chronic constipation. And before you question how closely I followed the Whole 30, please understand that that is belittling and unkind. I know all of the ins and outs, all of the small ways to undermine your whole 30 with SWYPO and all other pitfalls. I was incredibly dedicated because I knew that this helped me more than the alternative of a standard American diet, and doctors were not taking me seriously or offering any other solutions. 

I was finally diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease and Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth in February 2016. I started on an herbal regimen and continued with my clean diet, and was starting to notice changes, but I was still highly limited and unable to get out of bed some days. I decided to try the Plexus Slim along with their probiotic and a magnesium cleansing agent. Literally, stevia and dextrose (in small amounts) are the only non-compliant ingredients (besides brown rice, which comes in a lot of capsules). After two months, my depression and anxiety and brain fog finally started to improve (something the Whole 30 never helped with), my pain and fatigue reduced dramatically, my chronic constipation FINALLY started to improve, and I am now a full time grad student. I still follow a Whole 30 diet, and I know that it is an integral part of my success. Plexus doesn't work without a clean diet. It's not supposed to do the work for you. You do hear people say how, if they miss one day of their Slim drink, all their pain and tiredness and appetite comes right back. That's because they are relying on Plexus to fix their problems for them without any additional work. That does not condemn the products themselves. Also, the Slim is not a meal replacement. They do have protein shakes, but they're not Whole 30 compliant and I don't drink them. I drink the Slim in the morning before my meal and then I eat a normal diet. 

Please understand that a clean diet is only the beginning for many people. It is not a cure-all. Supplementation is needed even with the cleanest diet, and that's all Plexus really is--high quality supplementation. You can disagree and not take the products, but don't write them off without really knowing what they do. And also, the whole 30 narrative can be harmful to people like me who follow it faithfully and don't have all their issues disappear. Some people need additional help, and it's not because we don't try hard enough on the program. It's because some health issues need further intervention. 

[slc_melissa]

Well, it's a personal choice, but it seems like to me that if the friend is going to either keep the standard diet or switch to mostly whole 30 principles with one exception, then it'd be better to do the MW30POE. You can't call it a whole 30, but you could call it your friend 30 or whatever. I think it'd still be valuable and a learning experience. (I am kind of a stickler for precise language, hence the not calling it a whole 30 part.)

If doing the friend 30 helps symptoms enough that someday leads to a whole 30, great, if not, wouldn't we rather that, along the sliding scale of dietary choices, people tip towards the whole30 side?