Still keeping up with your New Year’s resolution to get healthy? If you are, that’s great! What are you doing? If not, do not fear, there are many others in the same boat. One thing that could be getting you down that also keeps women or rather anyone from getting healthy and achieving their goals, is knowing how to properly diet. So the question is, how do you do that when there are 50+ diets/trends to choose from?
There are people who are going vegan and gluten-free, but also doing keto. (Whatever that is.) Then there is Paleo and the Atkins diet. It’s cool that the health trend is keeping up in society, but you can just feel so overwhelmed about what is good or the most effective diet to try.
Thinking about diets like…
Or you do know of them, but don’t really understand them enough to follow them for the benefits.
There are your traditional Weight Watchers, Atkins, Biggest Loser and South Beach diets as well as fad diets like the juice cleanses you find on Pinterest. Some of these have success, but they often require you to buy meals or join a program, which can be hard when you are ballin’ on a budget as a college student. (Also, fad diets like juice cleanses can sometimes not be the healthiest for your body!) Here are some non-program oriented diets/trends:
- Vegan vs. Vegetarian– This is a basic and more popular diet/trend. But unless you know the difference, it won’t really help. Vegetarians do not eat meat. However, there are three types of vegetarians. There are lacto-ovo vegetarians, those who don’t eat meat like beef, but consume eggs and dairy products. Then there are lacto-vegetarians who eat dairy products but include eggs as meat. And finally there are vegan vegetarians that do not eat any animal product. (So no eggs or dairy.) It is argued that veganism is a lifestyle, rather than a diet. Regardless, this diet can be challenging, not to mention that there is a chance you can lack necessary nutrients like Vitamin D and Calcium or you consume too many calories in other food replacements. These diets are good though for lowering your risks for heart disease, obesity and high blood pressure or hypertension. Plus, it can be seen as rejecting animal cruelty in meat and dairy processing plants.
- Gluten-Free- This diet eliminates any food or product made with grains. This diet’s main purpose is treating those with Celiac Disease. This diet can really suck for those just trying it just because. It eliminates pasta, cereal and bread, which are carbs. (This part can be good if you are overeating these.) But these grains are also necessary because you can become deficient in fiber and thus be at a higher risk for heart disease.
- Paleo– You eat as the cavemen do. Literally. You eat lean and pure meats, fruits and vegetables and lots of nuts and seeds. If a caveman wouldn’t eat it, neither should you. This means no coffee, alcohol, dairy products, processed foods, etc. This is great for improving health because you are cutting out all the excess sugars and salt that is popular in western diets, but it also has its risks like the Gluten-free diet.
- Dukan Diet- This diet features four phases: attack, cruise, consolidation and permanent stabilization. It kind of sounds scary, but its basically high protein and low carbs like the Keto diet. This diet prides itself on shedding pounds, which is awesome, but with high protein intake and complete elimination of food groups, you can put yourself at risk of nutrient deficiencies and it is slightly pricier.
- Keto– This diet is different from those mentioned above because it is a low-carb, high-fat diet. Basically, when people try to eat healthy without having a plan, they think to cut carbs and anything that has the word “fat” on it. Saturated fats are good to cut out, but completely cutting out fats is ineffective. With the western culture diet being so carb heavy, our bodies derive energy from glycogen. (Sugar) Going keto means trying to reach a state of ketosis, which essentially reverses this action and makes your body burn pure fat. This diet includes eating fatty steaks, avocadoes and oils. However, I have heard from many sources that you can feel really awful until your body gets used to it and it may be on the pricey side. However, this can go for any diet.
- Mediterranean Diet- You could probably surmise what this entails. Seafood, fruits and veggies, and whole grains. (Plus more) This diet is ranked as one of the best because it helps tremendously with lowering risks cholesterol, diabetes and heart disease, as well as other benefits of losing weight. You eat healthy foods in moderation and get to drink red wine! There aren’t many associated risks mentioned either.
Of course there are lists of diet and in no way is this extensive. If you know more about a specific diet or have one that I have missed, please comment! We would love to learn more about it!