our bodies ourselves

The Tao of Diaz: 10 Things Dr. Cameron Teaches Us About Our Bodies

After hearing that Cameron Diaz dedicated a whole section of her new book, The Body Book, to pubes, we knew we had to get our hands on this gem. The book is 263 pages of girl power, glorious metaphors, and life advice that seems geared toward a rather young crowd. Cam is like your personal life guru, telling you that YOU CAN DO IT in all caps, explaining how one comes to trust one’s gut, and even going as far to explain the labia majora vs. the labia minora. She does it all in a big-sis tone that makes you hear her The Sweetest Thing voice in your head while you read all about “surfing the crimson wave.” It’s no What’s Happening to My Body?, but there’s just enough information in there to make your inner 12-year-old squirm. Below, we’ve collected the most mind-blowing information about our bodies we gleaned from Cam’s opus.

You Like to Eat the Stars: “Because when you eat plants and animals who eat plants, not only are you eating the sun, you are also eating the stars.”

Women Sweat: “Women don’t just glow. We don’t just glisten. We SWEAT. As we should because using our bodies so intensely that we sweat results in amazing things.”

You Can Poop Things Besides Food: “Here’s a Secret: just because you can put something in your mouth, chew it, swallow it, then poop it out, doesn’t mean it’s food. It just means you can chew it, swallow it, and poop it out.”

Your Period Can Be an Unreliable Asshole: “The word menstruation comes from the rood menstru-, which is Latin for monthly. You maybe have heard that a period is ‘usually’$2 28 days long. In fact, most women have cycles that last between 24 and 35 days, and 20 percent of women during their reproductive years have a cycle length outside this range.”

There’s This Thing Called PMS That Makes You Want to Binge Eat: “Just before you get your period, you may notice an increased desire for rich chocolate morsels, double helpings of pasta, and everything à la mode. These cravings are different from hunger … The physiology behind cravings is complicated, and psychologists and other researchers still aren’t exactly sure how they work.”

P.S., Binge Eating Is Bad: “If you’re trying to lose weight and you don’t want cravings to derail you, have a snack that satisfies your body’s needs in a healthier way.”

Natural Birth Is Better Than Delivery by C-Section Because of “Vagina Face”: “The C-section is an amazing operation when it saves the mother’s life. But when it is scheduled for convenience, babies miss out of their first dose of incredibly important bacteria, the bacteria that get their microbiome going.”

There Are These Cool Things Called Kegel Exercises: “Tighten the pelvic muscles and hold for ten seconds. Then, relax your muscles completely for ten seconds. You can do ten sets, three times a day, and you can do your Kegels while you are standing, sitting, or lying down. But don’t go overboard! Kegeling more than is recommended won’t give you a vagina of steel, but it may cause muscle fatigue, which can make any underlying issues worse.”

You’re Actually Not Supposed to Eat After You Brush Your Teeth Because Bacteria Are Mo-fos: “No brushing your teeth and then going to grab a snack in the kitchen. The whole purpose of cleaning your teeth is to make sure there isn’t any food residue left. Bacteria breed like a mo-fo, and you don’t want sugar in there rotting your teeth.”

Maybe Don’t Listen to the Voices in Your Head: “Some of the voices in our heads don’t really have our best interests at heart; they want to sabotage our success. They are the ones that say, You can’t do it. You’ll look stupid. That piece of cake will make you feel better.

Things Cameron Diaz Taught Us About Our Bodies