Before now, people considered their well-being as the state of not being sick and just the absence of illness. But due to an increase in knowledge and understanding, it has been discovered that one’s well-being is not just the absence of physical sickness. There are other dimensions to wellness, such as spiritual, environmental, emotional, social, and mental wellness.
And for you to be in the best suitable position of these dimensions, you have to begin with examining your dietary choices. This will make you approach life more healthily.
Are you confused about the type of diet that will fit you? In this guide, you’ll discover some types of diets alongside their categories and the reasons you should consider following them.
Why Should You Consider Some Diet Trends?
People consider diet trends for many reasons, and the most common one is weight loss. You may feel losing some pounds will compose your body figure and make you fit, especially when exercise is included. You have to go on diets that will add no fats to your body while you burn most of the ones in you during exercise. You’ll agree that losing weight makes one look and feel better.
Some people’s primary reason for going on a diet is not weight loss. Still, almost all diet causes weight loss although they eventually fulfill their purpose.
Other reasons for going on a diet are:
- Lowering of blood pressure
- Improving number of cholesterol
- The lowering of blood glucose level
- Increase in resistance to risks of diabetes
- To increase the rate of survival for people with heart disease
- To be in top physical condition (especially those that play sports)
- To prevent obesity
- To gain weight
- To improve digestion
- To have healthier skin and hair
- To gain energy
Categories of Diets
There are various categories of diets, but this guide will emphasize the following three.
Healthiest Diets
They are diets that give maintenance and improvement to overall health. It provides the nutrition, fluid, macro, and micronutrients needed by the body. All these help protect the body against all forms of malnutrition and diseases that are non-communicable such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and so on. The healthiest diets are as follows:
Low-carb diet
This diet makes you eat fewer carbohydrates (especially those found in sugary foods, bread, and pasta) and a high proportion of fats. Its focus is also on protein. Some low-carb diets allow vegetables without starch and some fruits.
If you are on this diet, you can take meats, eggs, naturally grown vegetables, and butter which is a natural fat.
Note: You should not go on a low-carb diet if you are a diabetes patient, high blood pressure, or a nursing mother (especially when still breastfeeding your child).
MIND diet
As one’s age increases, there is the possibility of a loss of brain function. The MIND diet reduces this possibility and prevents dementia.
These foods are to be eaten by those on the MIND diet: Vegetables, berries, beans, fish, poultry, wine, olive oil, nut, whole grains, and so on.
If you are on this diet, you should stay away from the following: red meat, butter and stick margarine, regular cheese, pastries, and other sweets, fried and fast foods.
Gluten-free diet
To be on a gluten-free diet means eating foods that do not contain gluten. They are the best for treating coeliac disease. Foods to be eaten are cheese, butter, milk, and other dairy products. Soy, rice, potatoes, flour (gluten-free ones), rice noodles, fish, fruits, and vegetables are also foods to be considered.
Foods to avoid are: pasta, pizza, ice cream cones, bread, candy, crackers, rolls, cereals, malt, pancakes, veggie burgers, stuffing, gravy, vegetarian chicken, cookies, bagels, and cakes that contain gluten.
Weight-loss Diets
Weight-loss diets are mainly to decrease one’s weight. They help in removing unfitness and do the work of stature composition. They help to be in a good mood since fitness makes one look better, and better looks give way to feeling better. They also help prevent obesity, which opens the door to many diseases and sicknesses like heart diseases, diabetes, stroke, cancer, etc. Weight-loss diets are as follows:
WW diets
This diet is a commercial and comprehensive one for weight loss. The foods you are to eat are lean proteins (such as skinless chicken, tofu), non-starchy vegetables, fresh frozen and unsweetened canned fruits.
It would be best if you ate less or none of these foods when you’re on WW diets: fast foods, cakes, deep-fried foods, processed meats, yogurt drinks.
Flexitarian diet
The word Flexitarian is a composition of two terms – flexible and vegetarian. It is more flexible than whole vegetarian foods. Being on this diet makes you eat plant-based foods, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains primarily. The proteins are mostly from plants than animals.
Try to minimize or avoid the following foods as a member of the Flexitarian diet: refined carbs like white bread and white rice, processed meats like sausage and bologna.
Volumetrics diet
Created by Barbara Rolls, this diet can be taken until one is satisfied. You can take much of it and still lose weight. It would help if you took more calories, high water content and high fiber foods, fresh fruits, whole grains, low-fat fish, beans and legumes, fresh and frozen vegetables. Still, you should avoid junk foods, processed meats, and refined grains. You should limit alcohol, nuts and seeds, starchy vegetables, fats, and dairy too.
Plant-based diet
This weight loss diet focuses on foods gotten from plants alone. They include fruits (except avocados, seeds, hummus, and nut butter, which causes weight gain), vegetables, legumes, grains, etc.
All animal products and dairy, which includes milk and cheese, should be avoided.
Sirtfood diet
Sirt foods are kate, olive oil, onions, parsley, soy, strawberries, red wine, dark chocolates. This diet was developed by two celebrity nutritionists working for a private gym in the United Kingdom.
Please note that you should not try this diet if you are diagnosed with diabetes.
The Mayr diet
The primary purpose of creating this diet is to give improvement to digestion. Foods to be eaten on the Mayr diet include potatoes, vegetables such as spinach, onions, broccoli and sprout, grains, pomegranate juice, green tea, seasonal fruits. In contrast, foods that are to be avoided are heavily processed and low-fat foods like gluten and dairy.
Celebrity Diets
There are different celebrities like Adele, Beyonce, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line, Gwyneth Paltrow, and many others on a kind of diet. They go for different diets to look healthy, fit, glamorous, buff, and presentable. Some of the celebrity diets go for are as follows:
Clean and Lean diet
A clean and lean diet is about eating unrefined foods that are whole, natural, and not processed. These are foods that are very close to their natural form. Examples are: unrefined grains, wheat bread, pasta, unprocessed meat, popcorn, brown rice, frozen fruits, and vegetables, etc.
Foods you should avoid when on this diet are foods with preservatives, sugary beverages, heavily processed foods, and artificial foods.
Alkaline diet
This diet lowers heart disease. It also helps to maintain the level of pH in the body. It encourages eating fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes. Meat, eggs, snacks that are canned and packaged, dairy, processed and convenience foods, poultry, fish, dairy, grains are not to be eaten.
5 Factor diet
The 5 Factor diet is a type of diet that comprises five components. It’s all about eating five meals a day from five ingredients which are from five different food groups for five weeks. It was developed by a best-selling author, Harley Pasternak who was also a nutritionist and renowned fitness trainer. The components include carbohydrates, fiber, fluids, fats, and proteins.
The ancient grains diet
These are less processed grains, filled with many vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The ancient grains are a group of grains that have seeds that are also consumed like grains.
Other Types Of Common Diets
There are other types of diets common to two or more categories of diets. Most of them are usually the healthiest and weigh-loss diets. Some of them are:
Keto diet
This diet is common to the healthiest diet and weight loss diet. The Keto diet reduces weight loss in several ways. One of the ways is the reduction of diet. The foods that are eaten on the keto diet satisfy you greatly, thereby reducing hormones that stimulate hunger.
It also has many health benefits which include reduction of risks of certain cancer, improving acne, healthy heart, protection of brain function, reduction of seizures, and so on.
Intermittent fasting
Like the keto diet, this one is also common to the healthiest diets and weight-loss diets. It benefits the brain and the body. It causes a reduction in the risks of type 2 diabetes. It aids long life and also reduces the possibility of having heart disease and cancer.
What you can take when you are on intermittent fasting is any one of the following: water, coffee, raspberries, lentils, potatoes, soybeans, multivitamins, smoothies, red wine. Make sure you avoid calorie-dense foods. Foods that contain a high amount of sugar, fats, and salts such as candy, cake, barbeque, snack chips, microwave popcorn, and others, should also be avoided.
Paleo diet
The Paleo diet helps to lose or maintain weight. Unprocessed foods and whole foods are to be eaten. They include meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and so on.
Are you considering the paleo diet? Then, you should avoid artificial sweeteners, low fats products, legumes, dairy, hydrogenated oils, salt.
Mediterranean diet
Those on this diet are to avoid deli meats, foods with added sugar, refined oils, and grains. They should instead go for vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, etc. They help to have a healthier heart and good health. The Mediterranean diet is common to both the healthiest diet and the weight loss diet.
Foods you should avoid on this diet are grains and oils that are refined, processed meats, foods with added sugar.
Many try to choose between the Mediterranean diet and the keto diet but it comes down to preference.
Atkins diet
This diet is common under the healthiest diet and the celeb diet. It helps you to shed excess fats and weight. It also helps to prevent serious health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, metabolic freedom.
Foods to be eaten are eggs, fatty fish, full-fat dairy, low-carb vegetables, meat. Those that you should avoid are vegetable oil, grains, and sugar.
DASH diet
The DASH itself stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. This diet consists of rich whole grains, low fats dairy foods, vegetables, and fruits. The DASH diet is a process that can be done for a lifetime. It can treat or prevent hypertension or high blood pressure without any medications. It is a weight loss diet and also one of the healthiest diets.
DASH diet makes you avoid foods that include high sugar, chips, high-fat snaps. Instead, poultry, nuts, fish, and so on.
Vegan diets
The Vegan diet is common to both weight loss diets and celebrity diets. It is an exclusion of all products of animals but involves eating foods which comprise of plants only. This diet can be very nutritious when it is followed in the right way. It aids loss of weight and reduces the risk of chronic diseases.
This diet tends to include, plenty of fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans, and so on. Foods to take include five portions of fruits and vegetables every day, some dairy alternatives, such as yogurts, soya drinks, and so on.
As a vegan, you must not eat any animal products such as eggs, chicken, cheese, butter, milk, mayonnaise, honey, fish, beef, and so on.
Why Dieting Doesn’t Work For You?
Have you been on a diet for some time now, and it seems it’s not working? You might be doing something wrongly. Find out the mistakes you might have been making from the following options.
- You don’t follow the rules carefully. Not being mindful of the rules can cause dieting not to work for you. You are to note what to eat and what not to eat. You are to follow them and keep track of them carefully.
- Going entirely off the diet. After a while, you might go off the dos and don’ts of a diet. This might be because the foods are not appealing, or your inability to cope with the restrictions. This is wrong.
- Failure to exercise as often as you should. Dieting without exercise will give an incomplete or no result at all.
- Without enough guidance and counseling, you might do things wrongly. Being ignorant of some facts will surely make you do dieting in the wrong way, and of course, you won’t get a good and desirable result.
- You binge on foods. This means you eat more than your body requires rapidly. You are to eat mindfully, that is, slowing down and eating without distractions. This will help you to know when your body has had enough.
- If you don’t sleep well, that diet may not work for you. Good sleep aids good dieting. It is an essential factor for your well-being in all dimensions. The absence of this hinders progress in the result of dieting.
- You are not drinking enough water. Drinking enough water aids digestion and many other things in the body.
- You may have a medical condition that’s making things harder. This is one of the reasons you must gather the needed information before you embark on the journey of dieting because some patients are not to practice some kinds of diet.
- You have unrealistic expectations, and you are too focused on dieting. When this happens, you won’t realize progress even if there is any. You’ll see yourself the same way all the time.
- Your digestive health isn’t in the best shape. Combining your diet and exercise with a cleanse could be beneficial for you.
Conclusion
Dieting has great and awesome benefits, of which some have been listed above. It works greatly and amazingly, especially when done in the right way by following the procedures mindfully. Make sure you do so without neglecting any of the important advice, no matter how small. Practice the diet that treats your health conditions if you have any.
Dieting to get the right result requires great determination, focus, mindfulness, dedication, self-discipline, and perseverance. Without all these, getting the required results will be impossible.
