Hey all!
Last week I discussed the metabolism and what happens to it while following a fad diet.
This week I will break down a few different fad diets and discuss why they are harmful in both the short and long term.
The first one I want to discuss is the Paleo Diet. The Paleo diet removes any food that has been processed or could not have been eaten in the paleolithic era. Such as grains of any form, dairy, legumes. It also asks to remove any starchy vegetables as it is not something the body is able to break down well.
For me personally, I like the paleo diet as a foundation. It does help decrease the likelihood of developing chronic disease later on in life. It is great for stripping nutrition back to the basics, incorporating more lean meats, vegetables and fruit into the diet, removing highly refined, sugary and saturated fat products from the diet. This is what I love about it.
However, what I do not like about it is that people do not know how to replace the nutrients they have cut out from removing dairy, grains and legumes. They do not consume enough to receive enough of the nutrients they need. As a result, they are unaware of how much they are actually detrimentally affecting their body by not consuming enough of what they need each day.
The main vitamin and minerals that I find most people struggle to meet their nutrition requirements for while following the paleo diet is the B vitamins, calcium, magnesium and iodine. These are responsible for our energy levels, bone health, muscle contractions, muscle growth, and for increasing our metabolism. So I think they are very important nutrients that you could be missing out on!!
The second issue I find is people lack energy while following the diet after a certain period of time. The first few weeks to months they feel great because they have removed the refined grains and saturated fat (which is FANTASTIC) but usually come to a plateau or low point, and energy levels begin to drop, especially if they are exercising as well. No grains or dairy food in the diet significantly decreases the amount of carbohydrates your brain will get to use for fuel. If you do not have enough fuel for your body to run, just like a car, it will break down. Your body will crave more sugar because it knows it needs it. You will come to a point where you will break and either binge on sugary foods or treats – whether it is paleo or not (dried fruit, fruit, sweet potato, lollies, chocolate, cakes, muffins). The binge continues and they find it harder and harder to return back to the way of eating. More sugary foods creep in and you find it harder to lose body fat.
This is usually that’s when they fall off the Paleo band wagon! So I ask you, what has this diet taught you? Incorporating lean meats and good vegetables – GREAT!!! Treating yourself to paleo treats regularly? MAYBE NOT!! Has it taught you what you need to replace to get all the nutrients you need?
The paleo diet is great if you do it the right way? Let me know if you need help!
The Juice Diet
The juice diet consists of fruit and vegetables in liquid form with no other meat, grain, dairy, nut or seed source included.
The Juice diet quotes:
It is a detox or cleanse for our body That is leaves you energetic after a couple days of detoxing That is releases toxins from our body It will alkalise the body
And these are just a few of their claims
The only good thing from this diet is that you will receive a good variety of vitamins and minerals from the fruits and vegies BUT THAT’S IT!
If you think of it as a ‘cleanse’ or ‘detox’ then you are wrong. The simple answer for this is our liver and kidneys are magical organs! These organs remove the toxins for us, and filter and byproducts of our metabolism from food or fluid and excrete those toxins via the urine. So thinking that drinking juices will detox our body better then what our liver or kidney will, which is one of their main functions is Ludicrous.
The idea that the diet will alkalise the body is also just crap! Foods you eat will not change your pH. Plus you do not want to change the pH of your body otherwise it will leave you violently ill and could even lead to death. Our bodies are designed to follow the law of homeostasis (law of equilibrium). It will maintain a very narrow range pH range and we have mechanisms in place to bring our body back to equilibrium. This is what is most critical to our survival. So no, following a juice diet will not change the level of your pH.
The next issue is that it lacks any protein. What happens when the body does not receive enough protein to develop and maintain muscle mass or provide energy to increase your metabolism. If you are not consuming enough protein to help with this, then your muscles will begin to break down, meaning your metabolism will slow down. I discussed last week that consuming protein regularly is the best option to increase your metabolism. Well obviously you can see that the Juice diet really is a load of Crock!!
Lastly – do you think this is something that will be sustainable in the long run? Has this actually taught you how to eat real food to prevent weight gain? All in reality it is taught you is that you can lose a lot of Body Weight, not body fat in a short period of time.
I think that is enough for today!
I will discuss Isagenix, the zone diet and body trim next week!
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