We’ve all done it… Something in our body feels a little off. So where’s the first thing we turn to? Most likely, it’s Dr. Google.
Like the rest of us, that’s what Jacqueline Alnes, the author of The Fruit Cure, did when doctors couldn’t figure out the root of her mysterious illness.
“You get on a website that you think may help you,” she tells Kristina Mänd-Lakhiani on the Mindvalley Book Club. “I got onto a website that, you know, they said that eating fruit and only fruit would heal you from anything.”
That’s the claim of most diet fads or wellness crazes, right? Do this or that, and you’ll miraculously be cured… You’ll miraculously lose 10 pounds… You’ll miraculously [enter your illness here]…
Unfortunately, such promises rarely hold up and can leave even the healthiest of us feeling confused and overwhelmed. And that’s something Jacqueline, a former Division 1 athlete, found out the hard way.
Her book, The Fruit Cure: The Story of Extreme Wellness Turned Sour, is a heartfelt exploration of her experiences with extreme diets and a journey towards finding true, balanced wellness. And it can be an inspiration for you to do the same.
The overwhelm of wellness trends
There’s no shortage of nutrition-related schemes, scams, and fads, especially given that over 45 million Americans go on a diet each year. From keto to fruit-only to military to a whole list of others, it can be hard to keep up.
This wellness obsession and diet mentality isn’t anything new, though. In fact, it dates back centuries.
In the 17th century, for example, people believed that specific diets could purify the body and cure diseases. Jacqueline highlighted one figure (controversial, though) from the early 1900s, Cornelius Dreyer.
Though he had “no formal nutritional schooling, no scientific evidence, and no formal research,” he advocated extreme fasting, hot water diets, and eating only fruits, claiming they could cure ailments like epilepsy and diabetes. These practices often led to severe malnutrition and even death, as evidenced by the tragic outcomes of his patients.
So why are we, as humans, so obsessed with wellness trends? Simply because the promise of quick fixes and miraculous cures is incredibly alluring. What’s more, it’s amplified by social media, a nesting ground of convincing testimonials and dramatic before-and-after photos.
I think that’s a really alluring promise that someone can make to you. Like, if someone’s telling you, ‘I know the answer,’ it’s easy to want to believe that and to say, ‘I’m so happy someone out there knows how to make me feel better really quickly with very minimal work.’
— Jacqueline Alnes, author of The Fruit Cure: The Story of Extreme Wellness Turned Sour
The unfortunate reality is, many of these extreme diets can do more harm than good. For starters, research shows they can lead to weight cycling, also known as yo-yo dieting. Your metabolism slows down, and your fat storage increases… pushing you straight into obesity.
What’s more, constantly focusing on what you can’t eat can lead to obsessive thoughts about food. You could end up feeling dissatisfied with your body image and even having eating disorders like orthorexia, the unhealthy obsession with eating in a healthy way.
How Jacqueline Alnes found balance in a world of diet fads
So how did Jacqueline, a Division 1 runner, find her way down into the dieting world in the first place? It started with a cough at the age of 18.
Taking the medication for something that seemed so ordinary led to a spiral of one-thing-after-another. Dizzy spells, first. Then, “my symptoms got stranger, where I started repeating words that people would say,” she recalls. “I started losing my memory of events, which was really disorienting.”
Desperate for answers (as anyone would be in her situation), Jacqueline turned to the internet. Based on the information she found, she started cutting out food groups without any real reason.
“I think that’s a really alluring promise that someone can make to you,” Jacqueline says. “Like if someone’s telling you, ‘I know the answer,’ it’s easy to want to believe that and to say, ‘I’m so happy someone out there knows how to make me feel better really quickly with very minimal work.’”
She believed the claims, thinking they knew what was best for her body. However, as the saying goes, you are what you eat—when you eat bad food, you’ll eventually look and feel bad, and when you eat good, healthy food, you’ll look and feel great.
For Jacqueline, the restrictive diet failed to deliver, compelling her to abandon it. She realized that true wellness isn’t about following the latest trend. Instead, it’s about finding balance and trusting her body.
Transform your health approach with tips from Jacqueline Alnes
It’s no secret that the food industry has a heavy influence on our eating habits. So the question Jacqueline raises in her interview with Kristina is, “How do we live in our bodies, even if they are flawed, and find comfort and find the ability to be in our bodies in a healthy, happy way?”
Taking her experience as inspiration, here are three things that you can do to have a more balanced, healthy approach to your wellness:
1. Take time to rest and heal
Life moves pretty fast, as Ferris Bueller says. And in this day and age where everything is at our fingertips, we often want instant fixes.
“We want information quickly, we want healing quickly, we want connection quickly,” Jacqueline says. “For me personally, I bought into those messages to the point where I wouldn’t even take a few weeks off of running to try to heal myself just because I thought I would fall behind or something.”
That was a major lesson for her. There’s a time to get up and go. And there’s a time to rest and heal.
“In the grand scheme of things,” she adds, “I wish I would have slowed down and known that it was okay to take breaks, take pauses, take rest, and search for longer, slower answers rather than searching for what was quick and what was right in front of me.”
2. Advocate for yourself
No doubt, doctors are essential to the healthcare system, and questioning their expertise can be downright intimidating. It’s important to remember, though, that they’re not always right.
“At 18, I didn’t know how to advocate for myself,” she explains. “I started distrusting myself quickly instead of saying to the doctor, ‘No, you’re wrong.’”
But the thing is, doctors are doing their best, just like everyone else. Seeing them from this viewpoint can help you take an active role in your healthcare and empower you to voice your concerns.
Ask questions, seek second opinions, and trust your instincts about what feels right for your body. If a treatment or diagnosis doesn’t sit well with you, don’t hesitate to discuss it further with your doctor or seek advice from another healthcare professional.
3. Follow a more balanced approach to healing
Most things in life work best in moderation. A little bit of this and a little bit of that equals balance. Extreme actions, however, often neglect important aspects for the sake of one focus.
That’s why extreme diets don’t work. In fact, there’s research that shows most people who diet will likely gain their weight back (or more).
So instead of relying on a single method, consider integrating various paths to wellness. For example, you can incorporate principles of intuitive eating with other wellness practices like regular exercise and mindfulness.
“I could have taken a little bit from the doctors, and I probably could have taken a little bit from another path of healing and sort of merged them together in a way that was most helpful instead of viewing one as the right and one as the wrong and vice versa,” says Jacqueline.
You can benefit from her experience by staying open to multiple approaches and tailoring them to fit your unique needs. By doing so, you create a holistic and flexible routine that supports your overall well-being.
Fuel your mind
If there’s one takeaway from Jacqueline Alnes’ The Fruit Cure: The Story of Extreme Wellness Turned Sour, it’s this: do not sit on your laurels.
That’s exactly what books do—they encourage you to grow, learn, and take action.
The great thing is, the Mindvalley Book Club with Kristina Mänd-Lakhiani can help you do just that. Every month, she selects thought-provoking self-help books that can transform your life, just like The Fruit Cure.
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