The Truth About Diets

Every six months sees the birth of a new diet trend. The whole world seems to be trying them and we do not want to miss out on what is current and cool. So which one is the best? Which one will guarantee you the results that you want? Is there one diet to rule them all?

Unfortunately the answer is a little more complicated. The correct question to ask is… “Should I be on a diet?”

Cons Of Being On A Diet:

• All diets are temporary: All of us know people who have had fantastic results on a diet. But once they stop, boom! All the weight is back on again! Diets are designed for a specific time period. “I am on a diet” means that there will be a time when you are “off a diet” as well.
• Diets are hard: Most diets involve depriving yourself. You are giving up things you love. They are so rigid and structured that there is no way to be “happy” on them.
• Diets are seen as a quick fix: Have you heard the words “crash diet”. These are great if you want to lose weight for a wedding or for a beach holiday. But most of us just want to lose weight so that clothes look good on us, or so we can get compliments. Most diets are designed as crash diets. Take the popular General Motors diet for example, it is designed to make you lose weight in just 7 days! Can you live on that forever?

Pros Of Being On A Diet:

• All Diets Work: In a groundbreaking experiment at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, scientists took a number of test subjects and put them on different diet plans. The end result: all subjects lost weight! This was fantastic! The study proved that the diet itself didn’t matter. What mattered was the adherence to it. When you are on a diet, you are so focused on what you eat that it makes you think before putting food in your mouth. Junk food is eliminated, binge eating is eliminated. This is critical to your success.
• Diets Create A Focus On Self-Care: As soon as you get on a diet, other aspects of your life change subconsciously. You start working out more, you start sleeping better. Most of us take our bodies for granted, and a diet helps us understand and take care of our bodies better!
• Diets Give You A Sense Of Community: Whether you are on a Paleo, Keto or a Low Carb Diet, you start interacting with or reading about people on the same journey as you. This creates a sense of community. Food is one of the most important ways that humans bond with each other. This bonding magnifies when you “have a plan”. You start looking for new recipes, expanding your mind, trying new things. All this is fantastic in the long run. It gives you a sense of identity, something we all tend to miss in our daily life.

So, to answer the question “Should I be on a diet?”, the answer is... Yes! Only as long as it fits two criteria:

1. It should be something you can do for the rest of your life.
2. It nourishes your body and is not a “crash diet” for a temporary gain.

Any diet that you can actually adhere to and has a scientific backing is a good one to do. Start by thinking about the nutrition your body needs. After all there is only one important criteria when choosing a diet: can you do it for the rest of your life?

Next column: In his next column, Ashdin Doctor will debunk a popular diet and explain the truth behind food fads.