Let us get healthy

My friend Sheela is always some of the other diet. I met her at the Forum mall in Bangalore the other day and she looked very pale. I asked her what the matter was and she said she was feeling very weak. Turned out that she was on some new diet where all she ate the whole day was an apple and a glass of water!

I cannot tell you my horror! She is not particularly overweight and definitely does not need such drastic measures to lose weight. When I said this she just did not agree. She said that her system needed cleaning, she was going the natural path and this crash diet had worked many celebs.

Well I do not blame her. I know umpteen people who have gone the ‘celeb way’. Open Facebook and the side ads are about miracle diets. Open Femina or Vogue, and there are fancy models or actors who have lost weight with some potion. People are just too ready to follow crash diets that are doing the round without even doing basic checks, leave aside asking a doctor.

Crash diets are attractive due to their promise of quick results, but these rarely last for the long term. The results they give are misleading and are usually swiftly reversed.  If one wants to lose weight, it has to be natural and patient. And it’s simple why…..

The diet is metabolically unsound

Crash diets today focus on calorie-restriction, but human bodies end up rejecting this idea. It goes onto a swift starvation mode and protects its set fat point by slowing down metabolism to try and store fat, rather than burning it. The answer is definitely not to cut fat!

The diet results in water weight loss

Such diets result in lowering weight showing up on the scale, but not necessarily fat loss. This weight loss is due to water loss, easy to gain back. This also makes one feel weak and tired.

The diet cuts out the good fats

Crash diets eliminate good fats out that provide essential fatty acids. Out body needs these essential fats.

The diet causes blood sugar drops

By cutting calories, we end up with dropped blood sugar, making us hungry and binge on carbs, which in turn promotes fat storage.

SO WHAT DOES ONE DO?            

• Reduce your total fat intake, particularly your intake of saturated fats and trans fats: check the label to see if products you are buying are free of trans fats. Buy lean meats and avoid too much red meat
• Reduce your intake of foods high in cholesterol: Buy low fat dairy products
• Increase your fibre intake with salads, fruits and vegetables
• Replaced sugar and foods high in simple carbohydrates with good foods like honey. You can read about the honey diet and its goodness at the Dabut honey page which I found very informative
• Use less salt
• Eat a variety of foods as that gives a great balance of what our body needs
• Drink enough water or other fluids throughout the day