Kelly Clarkson Shares the Secret to Her 37-Pound Weight Loss
Kelly Clarkson stunned fans when she stepped out on the red carpet at last night’s Billboard Music Awards in a black gown with a thigh-high slit. And when she recently shared a photo of herself wearing an animal-print dress with a wide, cinched belt on Instagram, followers gushed about her looks — and wanted to know her secret to shedding pounds.
Fortunately for curious fans, Clarkson isn’t keeping quiet about her diet. Last year, she opened up about her 37-pound weight loss during an interview with Hoda Kotb on Today. And her secret to slimming down might surprise you. The 37-year-old mom of two admits she doesn’t work out — “though you should, you know your heart and stuff,” she said. Nor is she doing the popular keto diet. Instead, she’s following the advice from a best-selling book called The Plant Paradox.
What Clarkson has said about her new approach to eating
While tabloids gush over Clarkson’s weight loss, the singer told Kotb that she really embraced dietary changes as a way to manage her thyroid problems and autoimmune disease.
“I know the industry loves the weight gone, but for me, it wasn’t really (about) the weight. For me, it was ‘I’m not on my medicine any more,'” she shared.
The American Idol winner said she eats “the same stuff” she used to, though she chooses different ingredients. For example, she might use almond or tapioca flour instead of wheat flour in fried chicken, and she eats hormone-free meat.
“It’s understanding food and understanding what we do to food, like spraying and pesticides and genetically modified and hormones we pump in” she said of the book by Dr. Steven Gundry. “And it’s also about how pharmaceuticals have kind of ruined our body, our flora.”
Gundry’s book, which was published in 2017, discusses “the hidden dangers in ‘healthy’ foods that cause disease and weight gain.” Gundry singles out plant proteins called lectins, which are present in fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and seeds, and which “once ingested, incite a kind of chemical warfare in our bodies, causing inflammatory reactions that can lead to weight gain and serious health conditions.”
The downside of the diet
Clarkson doesn’t think her diet is perfect for everyone. “It might not work for you,” she cautioned. And if you do decide to follow her approach to eating, there’s a big potential downside.
“Honestly, I’m going to be real with you. It’s really expensive,” she said, noting that she wished the government did more to make healthy food affordable to everyone. “I was poor growing up, and there’s no way my family could have afforded this.”
Does it really work?
Clarkson seems to have seen great results by making the changes suggested in The Plant Paradox, but health experts remind people that there’s no guarantee the diet will work for them. There’s not even clear evidence that lectins are the enemy, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Instead, the real reason the Plant Paradox approach works might be because it involves avoiding processed food.
“People are eating all of these processed foods and are getting sick,” Cleveland Clinic dietitian Dana Bander said. “We’re seeing them in their 30s, 40s and 50s and they have illnesses of old age because they’re eating junk. What the Plant Paradox does is takes folks off of all the processed foods and puts them on whole foods. People are going to feel better, and they’re going to lose weight.”
But Clarkson at least, is a true convert. She said she feels healthier and has been able to get off her meds. “And I’m 37 pounds lighter,” she added. “In my pleather.”
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