Good Food/Bad Food Whats Left to Eat?
We’ve entered the Twilight Zone when it comes to the multitude of diets being promoted today. Starting with the Atkins Diet, then the South Beach Diet, now the Hamptons Diet and more. All?higher in protein, lower in carbs, but the distinction should be quality of carbs, not singling out one nutrient entirely. If you are on the Atkins Diet,?South Beach Diet or any other variation of a high protein/low carb diet simply adjust from eating low quality carbs like refined flour and sugar products (think if it comes in a box, it’s likely low quality) to eating more whole food products like fresh vegetables and fruits – yes fruits.
Apples vs. Apple Jacks – You be the Judge
I know the traditional Atkins Diet doesn’t advocate much fruit (too high sugar) but think about that for one minute. My strong belief is that an apple is a good food, a bowl of Apple Jacks cereal may not be on an equal level. One is highly processed sweetened by added white sugar and corn syrup, and one is natural, plucked from a tree and sweetened by the sun. Which would you choose? Don’t shun fresh fruit for the sake of following your low carb diet to the letter.
Eliminating healthy, wholesome foods is not the best way to learn to eat better, but severely cutting back on the frequency of eating highly processed foods is. I saw a site which called it GM or MM: God Made or Man Made. If you think of those terms when you go to choose your foods, it starts to make more sense. No one says you shouldn’t eat chips, or whatever strikes your fancy, but make them a treat – and eat the GM foods more often.
Common Sense Diet
Common sense will answer the question about what to eat. If you are on Atkins, South Beach or any variation of low carb diet, avoid processed foods, not natural foods. Stop using “instant” breakfast, and cook whole rolled oats for instance. Sure you might have to get up 10 minutes earlier, oh well. You’re worth it!
You can still stay on a higher protein food plan, but this one minor adjustment will allow you to continue with your eating plan for a lifetime, rather than a short-time. I’d go insane if I couldn’t eat my daily apple, banana or other fruit. I love fruit. I think there’s a very good reason humans desire sweet foods – Vitamin C, and other nutrients, including bio-flavnoids.
Can You Be Addicted to Fruit?
I heard someone complain they were “addicted to fruit” and I had to wonder, what do they eat? The person who refuses to eat fruit because they believe it is too high in sugar, probably does eat cookies, crackers and sugary cereals. They might even drink artificially flavored and sweetened drinks, but they refuse to eat a natural food, grown from our earth? That makes no sense, if you think about it. Did our planet develop and thrive based on processed foods? No, of course not. They are very recent in the evolution of our world. Very recent. In fact, we’ve had processed foods less than 200 years while our planet is millions of years old.
With the high incidence of obesity, and our high consumption of processed foods, it’s hard not to draw the conclusion that one causes the other. You won’t hear big industry stating that case because our economy depends on us buying the products being produced by the companies that employ us. You’ll never see it reported that “scientists discovered refined flour kills,” even if it were proven true because it doesn’t support our way of life. We need industry.
Witnessing the epidemic of food illnesses such as Mad Cow, and now Bird Flu, I can envision a society without the mass produced meat industry. It will come to pass – nothing but your local farm will be allowed to sell meat because the big farm industry cannot guarantee safety of the food supply. Meat will become much more expensive because when they can no longer mass produce it, there is nowhere for prices to go but up. So do we whine and cry and moan about our misfortune or do we start to think of meat as something to savor and enjoy like the Sunday roasts we had years ago? We never ate meat every day then – and we weren’t so fat either. We simply didn’t eat as much processed foods. Most of us had moms at home cooking us dinner, making our lunches and even fixing our breakfasts.
Yes, progress marches on, but when it comes to your body, common sense rules the day. The Common Sense Diet! Try it on for size today.
Kathryn Martyn,?Master NLP Practitioner, EFT counselor,?author of Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to Permanent Weight Loss, and owner of OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com
Get the Daily Bites: Inspirational Mini Lessons Using EFT and NLP for Ending the Struggle with Weight Loss.
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Personalized Weight Loss Plans — Breaking the Yo-Yo Cycle of Failed Diets
Dieting will continue to fail most dieters, unless personalized weight loss plans become more available. A diet designed for a mass market will fail because the diet assumes everything is constant or the same between dieters. Not so.
Personalized weight loss plans have a better chance of succeeding because the personal habits, ideas, and goals of each dieter are used in the design of the diet.
It comes down to, “What is good for you may not be good for me.”
Personalized Weight Loss Plans — The Positives
Personalized weight loss plans, regardless of diet type, are successful for a variety of reasons. An ongoing study comparing dieters on personalized plans and dieters on standardized plans so far demonstrates the following:
1). Dieters stick with personalized plans.
The longer you are in a weight-loss program the more weight you will lose. The trend (no statistical analysis has been performed to date) suggests personalized plans keep dieters motivated longer.
This may help dieters get over the 6th to 8th week hump — weight loss was easy early but around week 8 becomes difficult.
2). Dieters on personalized plans normalize eating.
To be successful, a person must learn to reassociate eating with hunger. Learning to slow down to allow satiety to catch up with eating is one way to effect this change. This is why binge eaters tend to have the least success with losing weight long term, even though many will appear to be doing very well early in a diet. Personalize their diet and they have a better chance of long term success.
3). Dieters on personalized plans build support networks.Dieters with personalized weight loss plans generally seek the help of a mentor, guide, or friend more often than dieters on standardized plans.
They tend to build networks of support. Why? Dieters on personalized plans are succeeding. This naturally leads to more motivation to continue and investigate other avenues to help continue their success.
4). Dieters on personalized plans are physically active.
A study from the early nineties concluded that exercise helps long-term weight loss but not short-term. I say it doesn’t matter. Eventually, a large enough study that is properly designed will show that exercise at any time in life is beneficial.
This can not be stressed enough…exercise is paramount to your success. Dieters exercise more with personalized weight loss plans.
The best kind is a mix between aerobic exercises and resistance training. The result is toned muscle and protection from age related weight gain.
5). Dieters on personalized plans have control.
Dr. Gene Ogden in her study back in 1993 found that the women who believed their weight problems were caused by their own choices, rather than by metabolism or genetics, were more successful. They believed that they were in control of their weight and, therefore, believed they could lose weight. Personalized Weight Loss Plans give dieters control.
Personalized Diet Plan (PDP) Study — The Family Associates in Dallas, Texas. Lead investigator is Dr. Steve Walters. According to Dr. Walters, there are approximately 25 overweight patients in each arm and that full publication is expected by August 2005.
This article does not represent final statistical results nor is it associated with The Family Associates.
Interestingly, dieters think they can’t lose weight because of circumstances beyond their control. The blame is usually placed on their “slow” metabolisms, their dad’s large frame or the diet itself.
The solution…personalized weight loss plans. Put the dieter in control, let him own it, and then watch him succeed. Now, this is not letting the dieter design his own diet, instead, tweak the diet he chooses to fit his lifestyle.
Pamela Peeke, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore and author of Fight Fat Over Forty (Viking, 2000) said, “You have to believe that you will drop some weight and then begin that journey. Once you believe success is possible, you’ll feel less intimidated by the challenges along the way.”
Healthy Living!
Michael A. Smith, M.D.
Additional Information is available at The Weight Loss Professional
Dr. Smith is the primary physician and consultant for the Weight Loss Professional Website. His interests include preventative medicine, the genetic etiology of obesity, and several others too numerous to list. Please visit his Website at weight-loss-professional.com and let him know what you think.
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