Are your shoes making you gain weight? Stay with me as this claim has something. First a brief piece of history on wearing shoes and how it all started.

Humans Wore Shoes 40,000 Years Ago, Fossils Indicate humans were wearing shoes at least 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study.

The evidence comes from a 40,000-year-old human fossil with delicate toe bones indicative of habitual shoe-wearing, experts say.

That probably doesn’t mean much to you, why didn’t they gain weight then 40,000 years ago from wearing shoes?

Well, that’s the question and I have the answer in this post.

Read on……

Let’s start with weight loss shoes?

Did you believe in the fit flop claims? Did you believe the adverts that claim they are like caffeine for the feet.

The Promise of losing weight while you walk!

If only it was the shoes and not the actual increase in walking

I admit I personally love fit flops as they are so comfortable. I Certainly wouldn’t buy them for the weight loss aspect.

A Fit flop spokesperson said the following on the brand

We have been continually testing FitFlop footwear for its biomechanical effects on the human body with different universities and academics since our launch in London in 2007 and have grown from a ‘one sandal wonder’ into a global brand with aspirations to deliver the world’s most comfortable biomechanically-engineered shoes.

No mention of fat burning, weight loss or leg slimming that they claim as part of their initial product advertising campaign launch?

Claims of “comfort” no less though, that’s because by accident that claim propelled the fit flop, not the weight loss claims.

Weight loss is a powerful claim, I am sure people bought them for that initially, but comfort sustained the sales of the fit flop.

Well, even if the claims are far fetched I would still buy them again for the comfort. I have walked the dog for an hour in them through rocky paths and fields and my feet are just fine.

So the initial claim attracted people and when they found that they ate the same and wore fit flops the weight did not budge, hmmmm maybe it was a little bit of sales line?

I am not knocking the advertising as like I said I like the fact they are comfortable.

What if I told you that keeping your shoes on at home could be making you gain weight?

REALLY!!!!!

Any shoe I am talking about here. It is true.

So what is it that effects our weight when we keep our shoes on at home?

Well, read this…….

Obesogens

Yep that’s one of the reasons!

What the hell are they?

Obesogens are endocrine disrupting chemicals.

Where are they Found?

The researchers discovered that majority of the places the chemicals were found in included kitchenware, plastics, house dust, cosmetics, and cleaning chemicals.

The researchers continued by offering various ways to prevent these chemicals from being in the home. One of them was taking off your shoes as our shoes collect everything from the outside home all day and we then bring them into the home.

So while obestrogens are not the direct reason for weight gain they are disrupting our hormones making it difficult to burn fat in sensitive people.

So what do you do?

Follow the below tips!

Tip One

Go organic where you can (not always financially viable) and look into the dirty dozen.

There are fruit and vegetables to watch on the dirty dozen list. Wash these thoroughly:)

The EWG’s (environmental working group) named the following …

1. Strawberries

2. Spinach

3. Nectarines

4. Apples

5. Grapes

6. Peaches

7. Cherries

8. Pears

9. Tomatoes

10. Celery

11. Potatoes

12. Sweet Bell Peppers

We also have a “clean 15” list of low pesticide residue.

The full list of the EWG’s “Clean Fifteen”:

1. Avocados

2. Sweet corn

3. Pineapples

4. Cabbages

5. Onions

6. Sweet peas (frozen)

7. Papayas

8. Asparagus

9. Mangoes

10. Eggplants

11. Honeydew melons

12. Kiwis

13. Cantaloupes

14. Cauliflower

15. Broccoli

Do not avoid the dirty dozen just be aware and wash a little more than you normal would.

Tip Two

Kids love nothing better than shoeless feet don’t they?

Babies kick off shoes all the time and once they can walk they love bare feet whenever possible.

Could we be missing something here? They love the feel of everything underfoot, within reason obviously, hot pavements are nobody’s friend.

So tip two is “Kick off those shoes before walking into the house”.

This prevents all the outside chemicals collected by shoes during the day coming into the house.

Tip three

Hoover frequently

House dust carries many chemicals and hoovering can prevent the build up.

Did you know?

Adults ingest about 50 mg of dust every day, and children twice as much, so keeping the house clean is a very effective measure.

Tip four

Use a damp cloth to dust your furniture, rather than a cleaning product that may contain more of these chemicals.fit flops

So there you have it, take off your shoes when at home and eat a balanced diet to maintain a healthy weight you will also need to exercise daily.

Go for a walk in fit flops

Hoover daily in fit flops is even better

Ok so you get the gist of the post;)

Have a great weekend

Bare foot and fancy free

Maria

x

The Friendly Family Nutritionist