This is a collaborative post.
The word ‘diet’ is one that’s burdened with connotation. When a person declares themselves to be going ‘on a diet’, we tend to think of a temporary restriction in eating – but really, the term refers, collectively, to all the calories we consume from day-to-day.
If you’re looking to eat healthier, one of the best things you can do is to invest in some quality cookware and knives; after all, a decent non-stick frying pan and some silicon utensils that won’t scratch it will mean you’ll be able to use less oil in your cooking.
It also pays to ensure you pick up the basic skills you need to cook everything you eat for yourself, avoiding the need to rely on convenience foods like ready meals or greasy takeaways.
Once you’ve got these key principles mastered, you can start thinking about whether you might benefit from one of the many pre-packaged diets that’ve grown popular in recent years.
Here are just a few healthy eating plans you might choose to follow, dependent on your personal goals:
Keto diet
A keto diet is a low-carb diet that encourages the body to go into a metabolic state called ketosis. This causes the body to burn body fat more efficiently, contributing to weight loss in the long-term and suppressing the appetite.
Fast 800 diet
Fast 800 is a rapid weight-loss diet which advocates that we consume just eight-hundred calories a day. Fewer calories eaten equals faster weight loss, or so goes the theory advanced by Dr Michael Mosley.
While restricting your body to just 800 calories per day might sound drastic, this is only designed to be a temporary move – after you’re done, you’ll transition to the 5:2 diet before moving on to eat a balanced diet. If you’re extremely overweight and you’re suffering from obesity-related complications that need to be tackled urgently, the Fast 800 diet might be something to consider.
5:2 diet
Another invention of Michael Mosley, the 5:2 diet involves eating just 800 calories a day for two days a week, switching to an ‘ordinary’ maintenance diet on the remaining five days.
It’s technically a form of intermittent fasting – a style of eating that’s enjoying huge amounts of attention right now, especially among dieters.
Paleo diet
The idea behind the paleo diet is simple. Our modern food environment is designed to provide us with abnormally tasty food. Cramming butter, salt and sugar into a dish seems to make it more enjoyable to our tastebuds, but this is only because we’ve adapted to find those foods delicious as it’s what we’re used to eating and what the media tend to promote.
In modern society, we can gorge on these things all day, every day – and this leads to diabetes. In ancient times, however, people wouldn’t have access to processed, sugar-loaded foods. They would eat a basic ‘caveman’ diet.
Effectively, the paleo diet sees us go back to the ways in which our ancestors would’ve eaten. This diet cuts out any food that couldn’t be obtained by a hunter-gatherer. You’ll be eating nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruit and the occasional portion of fish or lean meat. Grains, legumes and dairy are out, I’m afraid.
While the paleo diet has been known to be extremely effective in both aiding weight loss, and developing a healthier immune system, it’s important to note that we should only eat red meat and fish in moderation, as eating too much of these foods can be detrimental to our health. The mercury levels in fish, for example, can pose a risk to our health, particularly for pregnant women. Meanwhile, eating too much red meat has been linked to bowel, or colorectal, cancer.
Mediterranean diet
Over the years, it’s become clear that those living by the Mediterranean Sea have been living longer and healthier lives. They’re also at reduced risk of heart attacks, diabetes and strokes.
A great deal of this advantage has been attributed to the Mediterranean diet, which is rich in olive oil, starchy bread and pasta, relying more heavily upon fish than on meat.
The Mediterranean Diet is close to what many of us would consider ‘healthy’. Crucially, however, it restricts the heavily-processed, fibre-less food that we might expect from a more American-influenced diet.
Have you followed any of these diet plans before and what did you think of them? Share your thoughts with other readers by leaving a comment below.
This is a collaborative post.