Wisdom Wednesday: Eight Most Popular Diets – A Summary

Wow, that was a long series. I hope it gave you some options for improving your diet and maybe some understanding of why others choose to eat the way they do.
Although I learned a lot myself, I’m ready to move on to a new topic. But before I do, let me share some common threads to all these diets.

• Plant-based – Obviously, the Vegan and vegetarian diets are solely plant-based, but plants as a majority of the food intake was a common even in the Atkins Diet, after the induction phase.
• Limited Grains – The Paleo Diet excludes them completely, and some diets limit them to whole grains. Processed wheat, rice, and corn are the downfall of diets worldwide. It’s how we feed the masses, but they are nothing more than empty calories. They will sustain life, but not health.
• Whole food – Avoiding processed foods whenever possible was also a common thread. Eat a piece of fish rather than drinking a protein shake. They both contain about 15 grams of protein, but the real thing is much better than the processed food.
• Raw versus Cooked – Obviously, the Raw Food Diet is at the extreme, but all the diets promote eating a large percentage of your fruits and vegetables raw. If you have a thyroid issue, then avoid eating the cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.) raw as they are goitrogens. Otherwise, I recommend about 50% of your diet be composed of raw fruits and vegetables.
• Adequate protein intake – All the diets focused on eating protein frequently. This can be a problem with the vegetarian diet. However, Americans often eat too much protein. (They generally just eat too much of everything) About 45 grams of protein per day is adequate. Make sure you have some protein at every meal, especially breakfast. A protein snack is a good idea as well.
• Healthy fats – This is a real change in thinking for many. Fat has been demonized for the past generation and many healthy fats have disappeared from our diet. Some fats, like the omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids are essential. We cannot manufacture them from other foods, they must be in the diet to sustain life. But many fats are healthy, in fact, it’s the “reduced fat” products that contain most of the trans-fats that are so unhealthy. The data never supported a low-fat diet as a preventative for heart disease. It was just manipulated to support the need to lower serum cholesterol by selling statin drugs. I know this is hard for many of you, but add those healthy fats back into your diet. Fat is extremely satiating. I honestly believe that the loss of healthy fats from the American diet is a major factor in our epidemic with obesity.

The Bottom Line:
So pick one of these diet formats that fits your lifestyle. Or maybe combine some aspects from a couple of them. I think the Mediterranean Diet is the easiest for Americans to follow, but I like aspects of all of them. The key is to find the format that works for you, something you can adopt as a lifestyle rather than constantly “trying to diet”. Next week I’ll review when to take your supplements.

The South Beach Diet

The Raw Food Diet

The Mediterranean Diet

Weight Watchers

The Vegan Diet

The Vegetarian Diet

The Zone Diet

The Atkins Diet

The Eight Most Popular Diets - Introduction

Wisdom Wednesday: The Atkins Diet

The thrust of the Atkins Nutritional Approach is to significantly reduce one’s carbohydrate (carbs) intake. The craze for low carbs comes mainly from the popularity of the Atkins’ books. The Atkins diet is a four-phase eating program, combined with vitamin and mineral supplements, as well as regular exercise.

Dr. Atkins said the main factor that causes us to put on weight is our consumption of refined carbs, especially sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and flour.

The goal of the diet is to force the body into ketosis. In ketosis the metabolism switches from burning glucose as fuel to burning its own stored body fat. When glucose levels are low and our insulin levels are low, ketosis kicks in as the body switches to stored fat as a source of energy.

Phase 1: Induction
Calorie consumption from carbs is limited to 20 grams per day. Carb sources are mainly from salad and low starch vegetables. The urine is monitored with a “keto-stick” for ketosis. The is the most difficult portion of the diet but it lasts only two weeks.

Phase 2: OWL (Ongoing Weight loss)
Nutrient-dense and fiber rich foods are added as additional carb sources, at an increased rate of 25 grams during the first week of this phase, 30 grams during the second week, and 30 grams for each subsequent week until your weight stops going down. At that point – when weight loss stops – you take away 5 grams of carbs from your daily intake until you are starting to lose weight slowly.

Phase 3: Pre-Maintenance
Increase your carb intake by 10 grams each week until your weight loss is very gradual.

Phase 4: Lifetime Maintenance
Start adding a wider range of carb sources, while carefully monitoring your weight does not go up. Your sense of well-being must continue. If your weight starts to go up, ease back on two things – the amount of carbs you consume each day, and any of the new carbs you have been introducing. Dr. Atkins says that “this lifestyle is the foundation for a lifetime of better health”.

Wisdom Wednesday: The Eight Most Popular Diets Today

As of October 15, 2015, Medical News Today listed the following diets based on three criteria: how many articles there are around about these diets/lifestyles, how popular they seem to be generally, and how often they receive feedback on them.

• The Atkins Diet
• The Zone Diet
• The Vegetarian Diet
• The Vegan Diet
• Weight Watchers
• The Mediterranean Diet
• The Raw Food Diet
• The South Beach Diet

The diet that is obviously missing from this list is the Paleo Diet. Based on feedback I receive from my patients; Paleo is by far the most popular at this time. So in keeping with the title, I will combine the Vegetarian and Vegan diets and add Paleo to the list.

Atkins Diet or Atkins Nutritional Approach, focuses on controlling the levels of insulin in our bodies through diet. If we consume large amounts of refined carbohydrates our insulin levels rise rapidly, and then fall rapidly. Rising insulin levels will trigger our bodies to store as much of the energy we eat as possible – it will also make it less likely that our bodies use stored fat as a source of energy. Most people on the Atkins Diet will consume a higher proportion of proteins than they normally do.

The Zone diet aims for a nutritional balance of 40% carbohydrates, 30% fats, and 30% protein each time we eat. The focus is also on controlling insulin levels, which result in more successful weight loss and body weight control. The Zone diet encourages the consumption of good quality carbohydrates – unrefined carbohydrates, and fats, such as olive oil, avocado, and nuts.