Quote from puddleduck on December 10, 2019, 9:04 am

@karen Arbitrary caloric guidelines, such as those MinnieMaud (now rebranded Homeodynamic Recovery Method) recommends, do not take into account the complexities of the whole person as an individual. This doesn’t mean that ED patients don’t need to refeed, rest, and retrain their brains—that is the basis of all ED treatment. MM isn’t unique in that respect. What makes it different, is that:

• The caloric guidelines are based on extrapolated data (instead of the needs of the individual, especially considering how fragile ED bodies can be during the early recovery stages)
• “Extreme hunger” is ALWAYS viewed as healing (even though it can be a symptom of undressed health issues)
• Edema is also ALWAYS viewed as healing (even though this claim isn’t currently supported by evidence)
• Weight gain is ALWAYS viewed as healing and healthy (even if it leads to immobility) 
• Distrust of your treatment team, and even YOURSELF, is strongly advised (if not directly, it is implied).
• Refined foods (sugar, white flour, white rice) are emphasized as more “digestable” and “calorically dense.” As Dr. Derrick Lonsdale explains, individuals with anorexia are likely already defficient in Thiamin, which will be exacerbated by a diet high in refined carbohydrates. This can be deadly: https://www.hormonesmatter.com/refeeding-syndrome/

In some ways, I am an MM “success story.” The caloric guidelines helped me (I believe this was partly because the weight gain and increase in liver size pushed vitamin A into storage, and because the emphasis on rest improved my CFS symptoms), but that does not mean that they were appropriate or healing to everyone who followed them. Also, I should note that I am not fond of many types of junk food (I ate a few packages of doughnuts on MM, but couldn’t stomach them for long) and don’t love processed cereals (I ate oatmeal for breakfast more often than not), which means I had relatively better nutrition on MM than some.

Over 40 individuals developed diabeties by following the MinnieMaud guidelines. Because this is a public forum, I don’t want to be more specific than that. But some of those who had bad experiences on MM left negative reviews of Gwyneth’s book on Amazon. Some also shared their stories on MinnieMaud Skeptic’s website: https://minniemaudskeptic.wordpress.com/about/

ETA: Wanted to add that last point above, after reading Dr. Derrick Lonsdale’s articles on Thiamin. This may explain why so many people became sicker on MM.