The Truth About Dieting
The diet industry is saturated with unhealthy weight-loss lies that fill us with misconceptions when it comes to proper nutrition. This has helped lead to an explosion of unhealthy weight-loss behaviours. Food-related conditions, such as coronary heart disease and diabetes, are on the rise. Unfortunately, the truth of how to get healthy can be hard to find, especially when it’s hidden behind so many lies.
Finding The Truth The reality of nutrition and healthy weight loss can only be uncovered when you stop listening to all the junk and consult with health experts and highly ranked resources for answers. Dieting does not have to be a bad word, but in our culture, the word has become synonymous with unrealistic plans and restricting foods you love. There is no quick fix to health. It’s an ongoing process that never ends. Once you put a timeline on your nutritional regime, chances are that what you’re really feasting on are the big, fat, unhealthy lies of dieting.
The Lies Revealed 1.
Dieting alone is enough to lose weight and keep it off: You could lose
weight without activity, but it’s usually temporary and you’ll regain the weight as soon as you go back to your normal habits. Combining diet and exercise will help you lose weight and keep it off.
2.
Eating right before bed causes weight gain: Your body is a scale, and in order to maintain your weight you need to eat the right amount of calories throughout the day to sustain your metabolic function. As long as it’s part of your needs for the day, it’s not going to lead to weight gain. 3.
You are never allowed to eat your favourite desserts: You can eat
anything in moderation or even better you can modify any recipe, especially desserts, to make it healthy. The recipe centre is full of ideas. It can be as simple as using egg whites instead of a whole egg or reducing the amount of sugar in a recipe. However some desserts are easier to modify than others. If your favourite dessert is a banana split you may have to rethink that dessert because you have more than 600 calories there. Try low fat frozen yogurt with chopped nuts. It’s delicious, healthy and lower in calories.
4.
Skipping meals will help you to lose weight: This is false. You’re body reacts
badly to negative calories. If you’re going through your day without eating, it’s just like a car trying to drive without petrol. You really can’t function well. Additionally, research shows that people who skip meals thinking that it will help them lose weight end up eating more than they need at their next meal, which cancels out their plan in the first place.
5.
I am too young to worry about my health right now: Unfortunately,
younger people are now being diagnosed with diseases usually associated with older age. Keeping to a healthy weight at a young age is an important factor for warding off diseases. Maintaining a healthy weight, by eating enough fruit and vegetables and taking in adequate calcium is important in warding off the development of heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis and other obesity-related conditions.
6.
Healthy eating is boring and very limiting: Healthy eating is only as boring
as you make it. Dieting shouldn’t mean deprivation. It should mean choosing and cooking foods that taste good as well as are good for you. You need to do a little planning and that takes a little practice. It shouldn’t be boring; on the contrary, it should be delicious. There are many cultures that eat extremely healthy exciting foods. A typical Mediterranean diet, includes lots of different herbs and spices and fresh whole foods to make food interesting.
7.
It’s good for you if it says “low fat”, “low sugar” or “fat free”: This
is false. You have to be able to decipher labels correctly in order to choose the right foods. Back in the ‘80s they had the fat-free craze and today many health experts link it to the rise in obesity. This is because people would interpret a label that says fat-free as calorie free, which is simply untrue. The same thing goes for any of the other low-carb products or low sugar or any of the things that say free.
8.
Drinking fruit juice is the same as eating a whole fruit: There’s
nothing similar about whole fruit and fruit juice except for the fact that the juice comes from the fruit. Fruit juice is simply the squeezing of the fructose, which is sugar, from the fruit and putting it in the glass and drinking it. It takes seconds to drink a glass of juice but you consume more calories. It takes, at least, four or five oranges just to make up one glass of fruit juice- that’s a lot of calories in a very small glass.
9.
Healthy foods are more expensive: Healthy food does not have to be more expensive. If you use a shopping list and watch out for special offers, it shouldn’t cost much extra. For example, if your menu says salmon but salmon is not on sale but cod, or a different protein source of lean meat, is, then you can make a substitute. Learning how to substitute is the best way to make your menu fit your budget and needs. Healthier foods are actually less expensive than packaged or processed foods, because you can buy them in bulk and portion them out yourself. 10.
Most of the salt in our diet is added at the table: Not true. All packaged
foods, unless otherwise labelled, contain high amounts of salt. Fast foods, canned and restaurant foods also contain tons of salt. The Food Standards Agency recommends that you eat no more than 6 grams per day. Practice label reading for hidden salt in foods.