Dec
31
The 10 Healthiest Diets
Filed Under Diets | 5 Comments
CNN Health just ran an article called The 10 Healthiest Diets In America. I’m not usually a big fan of CNN Health, they tend to focus a bit too much on celebrity weightloss for me, but I thought this article was really good. Basically, they got a panel of experts together and rated various diets. The results are in the article I linked to above.
Notice Anything?
Look at all of these diets and you’ll start seeing some trends:
- Exercise is a vital component - Many diets focus too much on eating and not enough on exercise. Yes, a healthy diet matters more than exercise when it comes to weightloss, but exercise still helps. Plus, if your goal is weightloss AND overall health, then exercise is a vital part which cannot be left out.
- Long term - None of these diets is a two week miracle cure. You’re not going to start these and then see 20lbs lost in the first week. These are all long term solutions where you gradually change your habits and lose weight.
- Not overly restrictive - Most of these diets aren’t overly restrictive in terms of what you can eat or how much of it. You’re not forced to consume just cabbage or told to restrict your calorie intake to 500 a day. These are realistic plan meant to be sustainable for a lifetime.
- Many of these plans have a motivational component - Motivation is key, always! Without motivation you will never stick to something which you have to maintain the rest of your life.
- Education as well as instructions - Several of these diets try to educate you about food as well as tell you what to eat or not eat. It’s not enough to just tell someone “eat this” or “don’t eat that”. It’s also important to tell them why.
Personally, I think anyone can benefit from reading more about these plans. Most of them are available in book form and I’ve reviewed a few of them on 60 in 3 already. You may not implement any of these plans 100% but you’ll learn a lot just by reading up on them.
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Nov
14
Mistakes of the Carb Diet
Filed Under Diets, Eating Healthy, Nutrition | 4 Comments
I’m in New York this week as part of my graduate degree program. A big part of this program is getting to know my fellow students, which means I’m eating out more often than usual. It also means some very spirited conversations on a variety of topics, some of them health related. One of the more interesting conversations I’ve had recently is with a few of my fellow students about the advantages and disadvantages of the high carb diet.
What Are Carb Diets?
For those unfamiliar with them, carb diets (also called Atkins style diets after Robert Atkins, the nutritionist who popularized it) emphasize restricted carbohydrate intake along with a very high protein and fat intake.
First, A Disclaimer
I don’t claim that carb diets are either good or bad. I think you can get good results with them if you do them right, but I also think you can get good results without them. So I am neither a strong opponent of proponent of these diets. That said, I do think people make some mistakes when it comes to these diets, something that became quite clear in my conversation last night.
Mistake 1: Carb Diets Allow Me To Eat An Unlimited Calories
Guess what, whether you eat a lot or a little carbs, you are still constrained by basic biology. That biology says if you eat more calories than your body uses, you’re going to store some as fat. It’s that simple. So no, eating a low carb diet does NOT mean you can eat an unlimited number of calories. While there are some studies that show low carb dieters burn more calories, there are also studies that show this is untrue and there are ZERO studies that show low carb dieters burn an unlimited number of calories.
Mistake 2: All Fat Is Good Fat
How many times have you heard someone say “I love my low carb diet, I can eat all the steak and bacon I want to”? Well, if it makes you happy, those people are dead wrong.
Carb diets tell us that protein and fat are good. Carb dieters mistake this to mean, ALL protein and fat is good. That’s simply not true. If you eat an unlimited quantity of lard, I can pretty much guarantee that your health is going to decline. Not all protein is good and not all fat is good. Even if you eat a low carb diet, you still want to make sure that your protein and fat sources are healthy.
Mistake 3: All Plant Matter Is Bad
I love this one and I heard it again last night. “I don’t need salads, I’m on a low carb diet.” Well, guess what, vegetables are still good for you even on the low carb diet. In fact, if people actually take the time to read the Atkins nutritional approach, they’ll see that vegetables have a very important place in it.
So Are Low Carb Diets A Fad Diet?
Low carb diets aren’t bad, but they can be easily misinterpreted. I wouldn’t go as far as calling them a fad diet, but I do think the way some people abused the notion of a low carb diet does go into fad diet territory. The minute someone tells you that you can eat as many calories as you want, eliminate all plants from your diet and still be healthy, you should be suspicious.
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Anyone out there on a low carb diet? I’d be interested in hearing about your experience and results.
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