Losing weight seems to be a national obsession. There are diet supplements, weight loss pills, diet drinks, herbal concoctions, and aromatherapy blends. There are diet gurus waiting to teach us their secrets; internet weight-loss videos, and advice-filled websites. We should all be as skinny as Popeye’s girlfriend Olive Oil! Guess what? We’re not. Obesity is fast becoming the number one health issue of our day. There is a huge market for any diet which seems even remotely doable and which promises to help us shed those unwanted pounds; whether the diets themselves are healthy and effective is perhaps debatable. Here are a few of today’s favorites:
- Special Ingredient Diets: The Green Tea Diet, for example, provides that tea’s antioxidants, which act to destroy free radicals and fight cell damage. It also has ingredients which suppress the appetite, block fat absorption, and increase the metabolism; and is a powerful diuretic.
- Restricted Carbohydrate Diets: Chief among these is the Atkins diet, which starts out with severely restricted carbohydrates, adding them back a bit at a time. Since carbohydrates provide the body with most of its energy, care must be taken to maintain a good balance.
- Glycemic Index Diets: The South Beach diet is the big one here. As with the Atkins diet, this one limits carbs; it uses the glycemic index to separate ‘good’ carbohydrates from ‘bad’ ones and measures the rate at which food increases blood sugar.
- Restricted Foods Diets: Diets in this category include the Ice Cream Diet, the Raw Veggies Diet, and the Apple Cider Diet and many others, each with its own claim to fame.
- Cleansing Diets: One current cleansing diet is the Lemonade diet, which started out as a healthy, short-term detox diet and grew into a ten-day marathon not for the faint-hearted.
- Specified Time Diets: Examples include the 3-hour, 1-day, 3-day, and 7-day diets. The 7-day diet is actually a twofer: it lasts a specific time and totally restricts what you can eat on each day. The 1-day diet is predicated on the assumption that you won’t last more than one day on any diet, so why not be successful right from the start?
- Health Issues Diets: These include the Arthritis diet, the Acne diet, the ADHD diet, the Cholesterol Lowering diet, and others, each designed to help you deal with health issues by regulating the foods and amounts of food that you eat.
- Children’s Diets: It is a sad commentary on our times that such diets have even come into existence. The need for them is universal and growing, and should include both counseling and an exercise component.
- Name-Brand Diets: Dr. Bernstein Diet / Dr. Feingold Diet / Dr. Kushner’s Personality Diet / Mayo Clinic Diet – these and many others gain their followers through their association with a known person or place that inspires confidence – in itself a main ingredient in successful dieting.
- Health and Wellness Diets: The Food Pyramid Diet, Eating For Life diet, the Dash Diet, each of which is well researched and backed by reputable associations such as the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, etc. They tend to be less flashy than some of the others, and more realistic in the expectations they advertise.
There you have it – an attempt to identify and categorize most of the diets making the rounds today. If you go online, or if you visit a bookstore, you will likely find more. The point is, diets are a tool. The real results come from a combination of commitment and effort over time; if any particular diet works for you, great! If not, develop your own plan – there’s plenty of advice available, for sure – and then develop the confidence to stick to it. Good Luck!
