One of my least favorite four letter words – it has been with us since the beginning of time – is … diet. I prefer to refer to “it” as choosing a “healthy way of living” due to the fact that the word “diet” mostly has negative connotations. To prove my point, a few years ago the name of the South Beach Diet was changed to South Beach Living for the exact same reason! I believe the focus should be on a long term healthy lifestyle where you can maintain your goal weight instead of a “quick fix diet’ because you need to lose a couple of kilo’s fast to fit into a dress, etc. I also believe one should steer clear from weight-loss programs that promises maximum results with minimum effort.
Earlier this year, award-winning celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito released a book “The Pound a Day Diet: Lose Up to 5 Pounds in 5 Days by Eating the Foods You Love“. The diet is claimed to be a brand new, cutting-edge, accelerated weight-loss program designed to help dieters lose up to five pounds in five days while enjoying their favorite foods. Sounds too good to be true? It is! I believe no one should try to lose a pound (450 grams) a day. It just isn’t healthy. It is a given that you will lose weight, but at what cost mentally and physically? Research shows that rapid weight loss (anything more than one to two pounds (450 to 900 grams) per week) may lead to gallstones, dehydration, malnutrition, and electrolyte imbalances. Other possible side effects include headaches, irritability, fatigue, dizziness, constipation, menstrual irregularities, hair loss, and muscle loss. This diet simply isn’t realistic for long-term success. I agree with Keri Gans, a registered dietician: “The winner in weight loss is not the person who loses it the fastest, but rather the person who keeps it off the longest”. Source: www.shape.com
A final thought … Most nutritional scientists agree: how we eat determines how we feel and how we age. This means eating can build or destroy our energy, health and well-being. Therefore, when we take ownership of how we want to feel and how we want to age, looking at our diet, is the best place to start. So after all, it seems we are indeed what we eat. To stay healthy you therefore need to follow a balanced diet. It entails eating the correct amounts of different types of food to ensure that the body is nourished and has enough energy to maintain its cells, tissues and organs, and to support normal growth and development. It is important to eat healthy foods on a daily basis because healthy foods have specific jobs in the body. The body gets energy from food and this energy is measured in kilojoules. In short, kilojoules are units of energy, i.e. it tells you how much energy you get from a serving of food. In a nutshell, you should balance the energy you take in from the food you eat with the energy you expend.
