NOURISH | 2023

WHY DO PEOPLE TURN TO DIETS? There are certainly good diets and bad diets – we all know people who choose foods carefully and eat well, just as we know others who seem to eat nothing but fast foods and soda. And, if you need to lose weight, then “dieting” – in the most general sense – is probably a good thing as long as your plan is one you can stick with, is well-balanced, and leads to a healthy rate of weight loss. Calorie Counting Counting calories can be a great tool when you’re trying to control your weight, but accurately counting them takes a lot of practice and an understanding of where things can go wrong. The term “garbage in, garbage out” certainly applies here. If you don’t record everything you eat and drink, and record the portions properly, your numbers could be way off. Ketogenic & High-Fat Diets Rapid weight loss, increased energy, and muscle building are the claims of the ketogenic diet (also known as the keto diet). This high-fat and very low-carbohydrate diet encourages you to eat meat, fish, poultry, and fats, while restricting fruits, vegetables, dairy, grains, beans, and legumes. The primary problem with the ketogenic diet is that it is very unbalanced, with a recommended intake of up to 70 percent of calories from fat, and carbs are limited to as low as 5 percent of calories. Without adequate carbs, the body runs on ketones (by-products of the body) for fuel (a condition known as ketosis). Intermittent Fasting Many diets focus on what to eat, but intermittent fasting is all about when you eat. Intermittent fasting has several variations, but the most popular form is one in which all your food for the day is consumed within an 8-hour window while you fast for the remaining 16 hours. Your body relies primarily on glucose for energy – which is derived primarily from the carbohydrates that you eat and is available from circulating glucose in the bloodstream as well as stores in your liver and muscles. When available glucose supplies decline – such as after many hours without food – your body undergoes metabolic switching and starts burning fat. HERE ARE THIS YEAR’S MOST POPULAR DIET TRENDS & EATING PATTERNS

The Paleo Diet Often referred to as the “caveman diet,” the paleo diet includes foods believed to closely match those eaten by our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and which many believe is more aligned with our genetic makeup. This eating pattern is high in protein (meats and eggs), vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Restricted foods include grains, legumes, potatoes, and dairy. As a result, this diet may be inadequate in carbohydrates and fibre, and also lack calcium. On the positive side, however, the diet advises limiting refined sugars and heavily processed foods. Carb-Cycling Carb cycling is sort of a hybrid of a low-carbohydrate diet and intermittent fasting. The idea is that you adjust your carbohydrate intake to your needs for a particular period of time – which can be as often as every day – so that you essentially take in more carbs when needs are high and cut back when you need less. So, in essence, there are days when you “feast” on carbohydrates, and those when you “fast.” Gluten-Free Diet Gluten-free is a must for those who have celiac disease or those who have gluten sensitivity. Restricted foods are those made with wheat, rye, and barley which may include other non-starchy foods such as beer, processed meats, and condiments. Nutrition is complex and personal, and people respond differently to different diets. But what’s important is to make balanced, healthy nutrition a sustainable habit. In order to strive for that

balance, try to incorporate nutrient-dense foods – those that provide an abundance of nutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals — relative to their calorie cost.

Source Article: Excerpts from https://iamherbalifenutrition.com/ healthy-weight/paleo-keto-fad-diets/ Article written by: Susan Bowerman , Sr. Director, Worldwide Nutrition Education and Training

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