Special diets versus healthy eating
Which approach is best for weight management and health maintenance?
I have put together this article to outline some of the advantages and disadvantages of both specialist diets and healthy eating. I must emphasise that these are my own views and opinions, and I accept that not everyone shares or supports them! I have tried to offer evidence for the statements I have made throughout this article. When I refer to specialist diets I am generally referring to diets such as the Atkins, Cabbage Soup, Drop a Jean Size , Weight Watchers, Slim-fast, low carbohydrate diets and low fat diets, to name but a few. But what do all of these diets have in common?The majority of specialist diets try to give people a simple to follow approach for restricting calorific intake, hence leading to weight loss. This is often dressed up as something more than just calorie restriction, but the outcome is still the same. Usually this is achieved by limiting or removing one or more of the macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins or fats) from some or all meals throughout the day. So how does this impact on the nutritional requirements of the human body? One example is the Atkins diet, which aims to alter the way the body produces energy by virtually removing carbohydrates from every meal. In Dr Atkins’ book he refer to a state called Ketosis, where fats are converted directly to energy when carbohydrates are not present. This diet has been seen to be very successful at achieving weight loss in a number of studies. But how can a diet be good for you if it alters your body’s natural energy production mechanisms? Ketosis only takes place when the body is starved of carbohydrates, but the central nervous system relies solely on carbohydrates for energy. How can this promote good health?
Another example of these types of diets is low fat diets, which acknowledge that fat accounts for a greater number of calories per gram than protein or carbohydrates. Hence they aim to minimise fat intake to reduce calorie intake. Although saturated fat can be harmful to the human body in large quantities, essential fatty acids play many important roles such as temperature regulation, hormone synthesis and most importantly, the absorption of many vitamins and antioxidants. Restricting fat read more
