How your DIET may be affecting your HEALTH
WE diet for various reasons — the need to fit into a particular outfit; a resolution to change bad eating habits; or even on prompting from our partners or children. But very often we choose a diet that is solely for weight loss, when it should instead be more rounded, to also focus on being healthy. What you eat can have an immense effect on your health, and so, having a balanced diet with exercising is very important.
Nutritionist Donovan Grant says there are so many diets that exist today. However, the more common ones are:
1. Atkins diet
1. Atkins diet
This diet is a low-carb diet programme that allows you to eat what you normally would, but in smaller portions.
2. Cabbage soup diet
Cabbage soup diet is designed for rapid weight loss. It involves heavy consumption of cabbage soup for seven days.
3. Sabbatical diet
The Sabbatical diet was created to counteract weight gain and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
4. Back to Eden diet
Back to Eden stipulates that people only eat unprocessed plant- based food.
Grant stressed that people should be careful when choosing diets because there can be repercussions. Take for instance a diabetic who is on a low-carb diet. This can lower sugar levels and cause the person to faint or go in a coma. An overweight person who is on a rapid weight loss mission and loses 200 pounds, for example, can suffer from low cholesterol. Additionally, if you are avoiding food you can get ulcers or suffer from constipation.
One of the biggest mistakes dieters make is to drastically cut back on eating to the point where they have only one meal per day.
“When you don’t eat breakfast, you are seriously setting yourself up for weight gain,” nutritionist Patricia Fletcher told
All Woman in a previous interview. “This is often done in the hope of losing weight but often backfires. It’s best to consult with a nutritionist prior to starting your weight-loss journey, so you can be given a daily caloric range which will help to guide how you eat.”
Also, nutritionists advise eating three meals and two healthy snacks per day to keep your blood sugar level stable and your metabolic rate high, so you can burn more calories throughout the week.
Much attention is paid to what we should not eat that at times dieters often make the mistake of drinking their calories instead. However, guzzling down a bottle of soda or a milkshake is just as bad as having a large slice of cheesecake. If you must drink, go for water, coconut water or unsweetened fruit juices instead, although the nutritionist noted that it’s always better to eat rather than drink your food.
It also makes no sense to eat clean between Monday to Friday and then pig out on unhealthy meals for the weekend. However, some dieters are guilty of this offence because they restrict themselves too much in the week and then feel too deprived after a few days of giving up their favourite foods. It is okay to have most foods in moderation.
Note also that while refined carbs such as sugar, flour, and pastries should be avoided, you will be sabotaging your diet if you try to cut out carbs all together. That’s because carbs found in starchy foods and fruits and vegetables will help to give you the energy you need and provide you with fibre to help you feel full for longer.
“When you have more fibre in your diet, you will find that you will lose weight more naturally,” said Fletcher.
And if you have been smitten by the promise that avoiding fats completely could result in a slimmer you, then you have obviously been fooled. While some forms of fats are definitely unhealthy for you, there are those fats that you would need to consume, such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats that are good for you. On the other side of the coin, overindulging on healthy foods can also be bad.
Snacking on nuts instead of pastries is good, so too is switching from white bread to brown bread, but this does not mean that you should be dipping in the cashew jar right around the clock. A crucial part of weight loss success is portion control. No matter how healthy a food might be, if not consumed in the right portion, it can easily derail your efforts to lose weight.
Instead of starting a specific diet plan, Grant recommends that individuals make lifestyle changes. It involves making the right food choices and exercising. Consume less meat, carbs, salt and sugar. This option is better and easier because with diet plans people tend to start yo-yo dieting. Yo-yo dieting is when your weight continuously fluctuates because you diet now and then. This increases your risk of cardiovascular disease.
