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MEET THE EXPERTS · No. 7 of 10
The doctor who asked why women were fasting by a man’s clock.
Who is Mindy Pelz?
Mindy Pelz, DC, is a doctor of chiropractic, author and educator who has spent her career helping women with their health through food and fasting. She reaches millions of people through her books and her podcast, The Resetter Podcast.
What she saw first
As fasting became popular, Pelz noticed that most of the advice was built around men’s bodies, which run on roughly a 24-hour hormone cycle. Women’s hormones move on a monthly rhythm, and then change again through perimenopause and menopause.
Her question was simple: if a woman’s hormones change across the month, shouldn’t her fasting and eating change too? Fast Like a Girl gave women a plan that works with their cycle instead of against it.
What the science shows now
Research on how fasting and diet affect women at different points in their cycle and through menopause is still young, which is exactly the gap Pelz pointed to. Since 2016, the National Institutes of Health has required the research it funds to consider sex as a biological variable, so more studies are now looking at women on their own terms.
WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU
If a fasting plan left you exhausted, moody or stuck, the problem may have been the timing, not your willpower. Pelz’s work invites women to pay attention to where they are in their cycle or life stage and adjust. Talk with your own doctor first if you take medicine for blood sugar, are pregnant, or have a history of eating problems.
Follow her work
Website: drmindypelz.com
Books: The Menopause Reset (2020), Fast Like a Girl (2022) and Eat Like a Girl (2024)
Sources
Pelz M. Fast Like a Girl. Hay House (2022). www.drmindypelz.com/
NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health. NIH Policy on Sex as a Biological Variable. orwh.od.nih.gov/sex-gender/nih-policy-sex-biological-variable
Dr. Mindy Pelz is not affiliated with The Broadside. We feature her work because it helps bring new science to everyday people.
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