Diet is important. Dieting can be dangerous.
As a verb, dieting can lead to weight loss, over-consumption of kale, emotional breakdowns, etc. I cannot think of a sadder way to eat food than when on a diet. People need to eat and people need to be happy. Combine the two and add some stuff for health purposes and everything should turn out okay, right? It’s a lot more complicated than that. A lot more.
I became a vegetarian around a year ago. I decided I didn’t like meat or the meat industry and went for it. I was feeling great until, suddenly, I wasn’t. A doctor told me I had a deficiency in iron. That was fine. I bought some iron supplements. Many of my friends take supplements, so I felt normal. I was confident; I thought I was healed. Nope, not quite yet. I realized my hair was falling out. It had been getting thinner and thinner. What was wrong? I took my iron supplements and ate all sorts of vegetables and whole foods. I figured I needed a while to get used to the pills. I returned to school, optimistic. Cooking and eating healthy meals was exciting! No more dorm life! Too soon, I was back at the doctor. She said I had lost 12 pounds since I saw her last. Oops.
Basically, my version of a lifestyle change wasn’t what my body needed. I was doing healthy all the wrong ways. I thought if I ate salads and vegetables every day, I was good. I wasn’t good, I was malnourished.
Losing weight was not my goal; I only wanted to eat healthier and feel better. I didn’t understand the science behind food and caloric intake. Three meals a day aren’t enough when they don’t provide ALL the nutrients a body needs to function. It sounds simple, but food groups need to be balanced.
My mistakes need not be anyone else’s. Everybody requires something different. Even though keto and paleo diets are joining the health-food trends once dominated by veganism and vegetarianism, it’s still crucial to focus on what nutrients you are losing by not eating certain groups of foods. Adjusting nutrient intake to accommodate this new lifestyle is the first step. Making sure this lifestyle change is best for your body’s physical and emotional needs is the rest of the work. Live healthily and happily from the inside out, not the other way around.