We are now well into 2017. Many of us started the new year with a diet, likely with the intention of losing weight, or being healthier.
There are many different products and programs on the market that promise weight loss. Some require replacing one or two meals each day with a shake or bar and eating a healthy dinner. Others offer weight-loss supplements focusing on reducing appetite to help you eat less.
Diet programs guide participants through the process, sell them their food and supplements, and offer weekly weigh-ins. These programs are based on changing lifestyle, tracking food intake by using a point system, encouraging attendance at weekly meetings and weigh-ins and regular exercise. Also, online programs help track calories and daily activity levels.
Diets including high fat, low fat, high carb, low carb, Paleo and Mediterranean are available, as well as many others.
Most diets work, if followed, but many are very different to how people normally eat. For many dieters, after reaching a weight or fitness goal, they tend to go straight back to what they were used to before.
According to 2016 figures, the weight-loss industry was worth $60 billion, from diet book sales and the many programs, clinics and products available. The industry does not want anyone to know that while on a strict diet they are undermining their metabolism. Dieting changes the rate of a metabolism, which can work against people.
A slowed metabolism can cause people to feel like they are constantly hungry, though their body needs to eat less to maintain the weight loss they just achieved. The weight-loss industry has much to lose financially and continues to create new plans and programs to keep us hooked.
We need to find a way of eating and active living that works for us. We need to learn what our body needs on an individual basis. Our ancestors ate foods they found in nature. With stores so fully stacked we need to realize that just because food is plentiful it does not mean we should eat all we can.
Looking at what is available, we should ask ourselves whether it is working to our benefit or detriment. Is it feeding the body or only filling the stomach? We should look at food as the basis of healthy living, giving it the place it had before we became too rushed to eat a wholesome breakfast before heading out the door.
We need to look at eating meals at the table more often, rather than in the car while on our way to work or when dropping off our children at school. Maybe we are eating too fast to give our bodies the chance to break down and digest the food the way nature intended.
Eating healthy and maintaining a healthy weight should not require a science degree or a list of different plans or programs that are hard to maintain.
Look at what you are doing right and find where you can make small changes. Create a plan that works for you and include whole foods: lots of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Let your body respond the only way it can when it receives all the nutrients it needs to function, with a healthy weight, fewer health problems, more energy and optimal health.
In the end, the best “diet” is the one you can stick to in the long term.
Kitty Clemens is a board-certified practical holistic nutritionist and professional cancer coach.
