Diet
A diet by definition is the type and amount of food and drink regularly consumed for a specific reason. Everyone follows some type of a diet. Today the term diet refers to restricting intake for the purpose of losing weight or for a medical condition such as a diabetic diet or healthy heart diet. For our purposes we will discuss weight loss diets.
There are thousands of weight loss diets claiming to help people achieve their goal weight. Many of these diets are effective in reducing weight and help to maintain the weight loss, however there are many diets that do not work at all. The list of diets is to control and lose weight is too numerous to name. Usually the types of diets can be broken down into four categories: food restricted, low fat, calorie restricted and carbohydrate restricted.
The food restriction diets typically restrict foods to what you must eat and what you must not. Classic examples of this diet would be the cabbage soup diet or the lemon-aide diet. These diets require one to eat only specific foods. Often effective for quick weight loss, it is almost impossible to be able to keep the weight off for any sustained period of time. Nutritionally the restricted foods allowed tend to be lacking in many essential vitamins and minerals. This type of diet in the truest sense, if continued for prolonged periods of time, can actually do harm to the body.
The premise of the low fat diet is to restrict the amount of fat taken in daily. The theory behind this is eating fat makes you fat. This diet requires one to consume only low fat foods such as low fat yogurt and milk, leaving out oils and butter. In theory this could work. However, all foods, carbohydrates, fats and proteins are broken down into sugars during digestion before they are stored into the fat cells. Once in the sugar form, the body is not able to separate which type of foods they came from.
Limited calorie diets allow food from all food groups however restricts the number of calories allowed per day. The theory behind this diet strategy is that the less food energy in, the more energy the body expends, the body will need to use its fat reserves and therefore weight will be lost. This diet works well when you can eat fewer calories without feeling hungry, a strategy that can maintain weight control throughout life.
Low carbohydrate diets are a type of restriction diet. On this type of plan the dieter eats certain foods that are low in carbohydrates and have a low glycemic index. The glycemic index is a system that ranks carbohydrates on their effect on the blood glucose levels. The importance of this is that foods high on the glycemic index can produce spikes in blood sugar, which over time can lead to a loss of sensitivity to insulin, the hormone needed to allow blood sugar to enter cells for use as fuel. Insulin resistance can be associated with several different medical conditions including type 2 diabetes.
The best way to decrease and or control weight is to incorporate the best of all four varieties of these diet plans. Consuming fewer calories, eating foods that are healthier and exercise are the most effective methods to control weight. |
