The One Size Fits All Diet Plan
Doesn’t This Sound Great!
Man when you see all the commercials online (Facebook, Pinterest), in popular magazines (Shape, Good Housekeeping) and TV… nutritional plans are not in short supply. There are literally thousands to choose from.
I’ve been helping athletes and clients with fueling for performance and weight management strategies for 18 years. All of these diet plans make my head swim too. The abundance of nutritional/diet plan information available is very overwhelming. After a short while it all sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher talking.
My plan/strategy is short, simple and requires just a little reading on your part. My goal with this article will be to provide insightful nutritional information, help you decipher these different diet plans quickly and assist you making healthier decisions.
Let’s start by looking at the statement, “I’m going on a diet” the statement suggest what? You, at some point, will be coming off the diet.
Over many years the true meaning/perception of a diet has drastically changed. Let’s look at its original meaning. The word diet comes from old French word diete and Latin word dieta means daily food allowance. The Latin word diaete and Greek word daiata means a way of life or regimen. The word diet now is used as a quick fix or temporary change in eating habits to lose weight. Your diet is supposed to be what you eat daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and forever.
Let’s first tackle what you shouldn’t do and why… if you are thinking of starting a diet. Approaching the subject from this point of view will make what you should do more clear and much easier to understand.
Let’s take a look a few of the most popular diets trending right now and the philosophy behind them.
The Atkins diet: This is a low carbohydrate high protein/fat diet. It claims you can lose weight eating as much protein and fat as you want. This diet also claims that it is great at reducing high blood sugar and promotes HDL cholesterol (the good stuff) and makes you feel fuller so you will eat less. Thus, taking in fewer calories and quickly reducing your weight.
Vegan Diet: Vegans do not eat anything that is animal based including eggs, honey or dairy based. The dieters here are more philosophically base. They don’t want to harm the environment or someone’s pet.
Vegetarian Diet: people who adapt this style of dieting usually do not eat animal products. They do eat dairy products, eggs and some will consume fish.
South Beach Diet: Focuses on the control of insulin levels and the benefits of unrefined slow carbohydrates vs. fast carbohydrates. These slow carbohydrates include whole grains, specific fruits (no bananas) and veggies (not carrots) appropriate fats (canola oil) and lean protein sources.
The Zone Diet: This diet aims for nutritional balance of 40% carbohydrates, 30% fats and 30% protein each time you eat. One of its main focuses is on controlling insulin levels which results in more successful weight loss. The Zone Diet was created by the same philosophy as the Palio Diet. It’s based off the fact that our genes have not adapted to farm grown foods. We are still genetically programmed as hunters and gathers. So, eating grains, pasta and breads are causing you to get fat and increasing the incidence of sickness and disease. Zone diet food intake is made up of natural carbohydrates such as fruits, fiber rich veggies and protein.
As you can see from these different diets they have a common thread, they all restrict what they perceive as bad food and focus on certain percentages of macronutrients (fats, carbohydrates and protein) in each meal. Let’s take a look at each diet plan and their potential effects on your long term health.
The Atkins diet for a long term dieting plan can be harmful to your health. I do completely agree that this diet is very effective at dropping weight and managing blood sugar levels but, I believe the nutritional sacrifice is not worth it. You don’t want to cut out the variety of fruits and veggies that are extremely important to your brain, immune system and other critical functions of the body. Also ingesting great quantities of animal fats and protein will eventually catch up with you. This diet plan is hard on your cognitive skills, internal organs and may predispose you to dementia.
The vegetarian and vegan diets would not be my favorite choices to pick either. I know they sound like a very healthy lifestyle and nutritious when taking them at face value but, you need animal fat in your diet. We are carnivores and the nutrients you get from a variety of meat sources are extremely important. What it boils down to how much animal meat you have and how often you have it. Many vegans and vegetarians struggle with weight management and tend to get sick more frequently due to the restrictive nature and limits on a variety of food groups. For a vegan or vegetarian it can be very challenging to get in complete proteins, fat and the necessary nutrients they supply.
The Zone Diet is getting closer to a diet plan that is healthy and could be sustained for the long term. It does encourage eating a variety of fruits and veggies and it stresses the need for animal proteins/fats. Where it starts to lose me is in the percentages and the fact that all the food sources have to be fresh and free range animals. Let’s address the percentages first. Everyone is genetically different and your individual macronutrients (protein, fats, and carbohydrates) intake levels must vary. Percentages of these nutrients will vary due to activity levels, age, if you’re diabetic, male or female and blood type, just to mention a few. This diet is not based completely in reality. This way of eating can be very expensive and difficult to strictly have all natural/fresh food available at all times for the average household. If you want to be successful at permanently changing your eating habits, the diet you choose should be realistic for you to maintain for the rest of your life. Looking at this diet as a good outline and guide would be the way to set you up for long term success.
Now that we have analyzed the different diet plans if you parse the different diets they all have some great qualities within their régimes but, remember our bodies are complex organisms.
These different restrictions can be quite detrimental to your physical and mental health. Most people have good health intentions when they embark on a diet change, but many lack the for-thought or nutritional education on how the diet they chose could potentially negatively affect their overall health in the long term.
It’s very common to hear people make this comment all the time “eat things in moderation.” I do not care much for this saying, it is too general and the definition of “moderation” varies dramatically from person to person!
If you are used to eating a specific way taking on a new diet plan can not only be challenging but a very time consuming process. As Americans we are always in a hurry looking for the quick meal, snack and Apps for our phones to make our lives easier. What I have always told my clients is, if you can take the time and energy to eat the way most of these diets suggest, you have the time and ability to make good decisions for long term changes in your diet.
At Florida Sports Docs (FSD) when we work with our Athletes/clients our priority is to educate you how to be nutritionally successful for the long haul.
This change, for the most part, should not be done by drastically changing everything at once. Very few people are successful doing it that way. Changing life time eating habits are more successfully accomplished when implemented in small doses (baby steps) and the Athlete/client is onboard to make this change a priority.
At FSD one of the first questions we ask our clients to consider is, am I exactly like everyone else out in the world? Or, am I an individual with different body/blood type and nutritional needs? I’ll help you out with this one, we’re all different!
The first thing I need you to consider when making the decision to go on a diet is to not go on a diet. Profound statement, don’t you think? No I’m not crazy, just wanting you to remember a diet is suggesting temporary and very often will not work for the long haul.
What I really need you to consider when you’re picking a diet plan to follow is, ask yourself can I eat the way the diet suggests for the rest of your life?
Now let’s look at proven strategies for changing your nutritional régime, provide a plan to improve your health and manage your weight loss successfully for the long term.
It’s very important to go see your primary care doctor and get thorough blood work done. Take the results of your blood work to a healthcare professional that has education in nutrition. A professional that is experienced in helping you address your individual nutritional needs.
These professionals should do a thorough evaluation of your needs, look closely at family history and take your blood work, health, and lifestyle into consideration.
A successful diet plan may include the implementation of natural food supplementation (no synthetics). FSD strongly encourages you to avoid buying synthetic supplements. Supplements that are mostly synthetic or have some level of synthetics in them may have negative ramifications. Generally speaking, synthetic supplements do not get absorbed very well if at all as they often lack the natural co-factors for our body to utilize them. Second, they could be potentially harmful if you happen to have allergies to any of those synthetic substances or are counting on the nutrients for better health and not absorbing them. It’s very important to read labels and be educated on a good quality supplement.
Supplementation may be necessary as rarely can a person eat a perfect diet day in and day out. I thought that I was the perfect eater, well balanced diet…but I’ve come to the realization that it’s difficult to get in everything you need nutritionally every day with today’s hectic lifestyles. Maybe a person could eat perfectly if he/she has the ability to eat whenever needed and could prepare fresh all natural foods in the exact quantities needed. I can tell you if you have a typical American lifestyle, you’re going to come up nutrient short more often than you think.
Final Thought from FSD: “Every day is a good day, just some days are better than others.” If you stumble trying to make this needed nutritional change in your life don’t let it bring you down. Life will always have some bumps in the road. If you have a good healthy diet/nutritional strategy in place though, life’s nutritional challenges will be temporary.*
*Statements are made for educational purposes only and the information contained is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent illness. The views and advise expressed by Florida Sports Docs are not intended to be a substitute for conventional medical service. Seek the advise of a medical professional before making any changes to your lifestyle or diet.