A healthy diet is important, but the word “dieting” has come to be synonymous with losing weight. Unfortunately, it’s also become known as being pretty ineffective, as dieters’ most frequent complaint is of not being able to lose weight, or of it coming right back afterward.
The solution is to take the word “diet” back to what it really means — what you eat — and then to pair it with the word “healthy.” Dieting shouldn’t be about losing weight quickly and then going back to your previous unhealthy habits. It also shouldn’t be about doing horribly unhealthy things to your body in the name of losing weight.
Here are a few dos and don’ts to follow for a truly healthy diet.
DON’T crash diet. Crash dieting is like cramming for a test: In the short run it might get the job done, but you won’t have anything to show for it in the long term… and you very well might not have anything to show for it in the short run, either. Crash dieters are unlikely to lose weight and even less likely to keep it off if they do, as they typically return to their poor eating habits before long. Plus, the repeated yo-yo pattern of losing weight, then gaining it back isn’t good for you. It’s much healthier to slowly adapt to a more healthy diet, and make it something you can stick with over the long run.
DON’T get sucked into diet fads. The Atkins, the South Beach — these are examples of fad diets that suck people in… and spit them back out at essentially the same weight they started at. Avoid any diet that promises to hold the key to successful dieting, or the amazing secret you never knew, or that makes some “groundbreaking” claim such as that the human digestive system isn’t made to process grains (no matter that we have been doing so for 10,000 years). These diets are depending on gimmicks to make their creators lots of money, whether or not they really work (and they usually don’t).
DON’T cleanse. No, you really can’t make up for all the cumulative unhealthy diet decisions you’ve made by eating nothing but carrots for a week. In fact, you can make yourself really sick with “cleansing” types of diets, and could even land yourself in the hospital. There is no magic eraser or delete key to get rid of the entire cheesecake you ate last night, or the super-sized hamburger and fries you devoured for lunch. You are much better off sticking to a healthy, but reasonable, diet on a daily basis.
DO eat a high-carb diet with lots of fruits and vegetables. Research shows that people from cultures that eat diets high in fruits and vegetables tend to be healthier and have fewer cases of heart attack, stroke, and other diseases that plague American society. High carb diets don’t mean lots of sugary, processed foods, though. We’re talking about lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, all of which have the nutrients our bodies need.
DO avoid highly processed foods. Highly processed foods generally offer empty calories. Not only are they full of artificial and highly processed ingredients, such as corn sweeteners and food coloring, processing also tends to leech out whatever nutrients the food had in the first place. Canned vegetables don’t have the same vitamin and mineral content as raw or steamed veggies, for instance. Many food companies add vitamins (usually vitamin C) to foods to make them more appealing, but don’t let yourself be tempted. You are much better off eating an orange than drinking orange juice that has been fortified with 100 percent vitamin C. (Who needs that much in each glass, anyway?) This includes foods billed as low fat or sugar free — it takes a lot of processing to remove these things, not to mention it means you are most likely getting artificial ingredients such as calorie-free sweeteners and trans fats.
DO exercise regularly as part of your healthy diet. You can’t expect simply restricting calories to give you a beautiful toned body or make you healthier. Exercise is an important part of a healthy diet. If you are trying to lose weight, cut your calories somewhat (such as by about one-fifth), and add exercise to burn off fat stores. The only way your body will burn fat stores via dieting alone is if it thinks it’s starving, and it’s uncomfortable (not to mention demoralizing and stressful) to cut enough calories to convince your body of that.
The key to a successful diet is to make small changes over time, so that you are less likely to succumb to cravings or binge on your favorite foods. Above all, don’t think of it as dieting, i.e., trying to lose weight. Instead, make it your goal to live a healthier lifestyle in all respects, with exercise and activity as well as healthy foods.
This guest post is by Kitty Vogen who works for a web company that will assist you in finding an internist, who can assist you in medical issues related to diet.
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