To Diet or Not to Diet? Recommended Diets and What You Should Know About Them
No sooner do you decide on a more hands-on approach to your fitness and health than wellness gurus and sites present you with a billion options. And whether you are out for weight loss, immunity boost, or gut health, diets are among the most recommended solutions.
But all that glitters isn’t necessarily the diet you need. Some diet plans will help you; others will ensure you need help immediately or in the long run–at least if done wrong.
We want to help preemptively by giving you the scoop on some recommended diets. We’ll discuss the positives and negatives to consider; then, we’ll offer some guidelines for choosing a diet plan. And so, without further ado, let’s talk diets.
Paleo Diet
The paleo diet is often recommended as a starting ground for people who want to lose weight. The idea is to stay away from overly processed foods rich in artificial ingredients and additives.
Instead, you focus on fruits, meat, poultry, fish, poultry, etc., foods that would have been available to our Paleolithic ancestors. Grains, legumes, extra sugar, dairy, etc., are all dietary sins if you are on paleo.
Pros and Cons
On the one hand, this diet plan is one of the best options for starting weight loss and increasing sugar and lipid profiles in the short run.
On the other hand, the absence of legumes, grains, and dairy can leave you low on carbs, as the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics warns. As such, if you already have a low-carb problem, or you have kidney damage or type 1 diabetes, you should avoid paleo dieting.
Warrior Diet
While technically a fasting plan, nutrition experts also think of the warrior diet as, well, a dietary plan. The plan is pretty simple: you go without food for 20 hours, after which you have four hours to gorge yourself—just like an ancient warrior. This plan is for intermittent fasters who want to step it up a notch and go for something more intensive.
Pros and Cons
Now, the warrior diet is a bit complicated where benefits are concerned. On the face of it, it can help with weight loss, which is why some fitness experts may recommend it.
Still, it’s not directly supported by scientific evidence. Its credibility mostly derives from the fact that it is a kind of intermittent fasting, and those have been shown to be effective for not just weight loss but also sugar control, brain health, and inflammation.
In any case, this diet plan is extreme for most people and may lead to extreme fatigue and even fainting. Don’t go Warrior except under the guidance of a nutrition expert.
DASH Diet
If you have issues with high blood pressure, experts generally recommend Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. It’s both a single plan and a collection of different approaches that center around managing hypertension.
The idea of it is a diet focused on lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean meat. Red meat, high salt, and added sugars? These are all to be avoided.
Pros and Cons
Apart from a scientifically verified role in preventing hypertension, there is also much anecdotal evidence that this plan can aid in weight loss and reduction of depressive symptoms.
Furthermore, it’s also known to reduce the risk of colorectal and breast cancer. However, there are some significant risks to this diet plan.
The reduction in salt intake has been linked to developing insulin resistance. Furthermore, experts warn that the low sodium intake isn’t good for non-hypertensive people.
MIND Diet
This is the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay diet, quite a mouthful of a name for sure. Quite aptly for its acronym, this diet type focuses on improving brain health.
As a MIND dieter, you are not required to follow a strict meal plan, only advised to eat up to 10 particular brain-friendly foods, most of them fruits. These include berries, beans, whole grains, fish, and poultry.
Additionally, you need to eat nuts, as well as leafy and non-starchy vegetables.
Pros and Cons
One of the main advantages of the MIND diet is its demonstrated role in reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia. It is also known to slow the onset of Parkinson’s disease while also outperforming most plant-based diets at improving cognition.
The MIND diet is almost too good to be true as it is not currently known to have any real downsides. Although, the fact that it does not involve any strict meal plans or guidelines leaves a bit too much wiggle room. And where there’s too much wiggle room, some dieters may wiggle too much and may experiment dangerously.
How Can You Choose the Best Diet Plan
Clearly, the many diet plans have their relevance and are not for everyone. Before you choose any, you must know if it’s what you need. So, how can you choose the right plans? Here are a few tips to help.
- Make sure it’s sustainable: The best diet plans, experts say, are the ones you can keep up. This consideration also includes your capacity to afford and prepare the foods recommended in that diet plan. If you cannot sustain a diet plan indefinitely, you should probably try something else.
- Avoid experimental plans: This includes plans that have not been tested and certified scientifically. Little is reliably known about such diets, especially their relevance and potential side effects.
- Listen to your nutritionist: Your best shot at getting the right results is betting guidance from a certified nutrition expert. They will recommend the best, tested diets for you.
- Follow the research: While your nutritionist may be familiar with the best-supported diets and the relevant research, it doesn’t hurt to know a bit yourself. Besides, especially when you can’t afford the services of an expert, it’s always great to have your own working understanding of these diets.
Conclusion
Diets offer a whole range of benefits, especially weight loss. However, we can see that each one works best for one thing or the other. Essentially, whatever your aims are, it’s dangerous to use just any diet plan to achieve them. And while it can initially be a challenge to determine the best from the many options, it doesn’t have to.
This post gives you the tools you need to approach diet choices. By understanding enough about the relevant diets and with guidance from a trained and certified dietician or nutritionist, you will find that you will reach your dieting goals with as little to remedy as possible.