Choosing the right diet
published: Wednesday | February 25, 2004

Patricia Thompson - NUTRITION TALK

ARE YOU caught up in the fad diet bandwagon, jumping from one diet to another hoping for the magic solution to your weight problem? Consumers are constantly falling prey to the many dieting gadgets, gimmicks and fad diets, all promising the same thing, fast and effortless weight loss. Some of these actually do this initially, but at what cost?

The fastest way to lose weight is by losing water from the body cells. You may lose even seven pounds in one day but this does not represent fat loss. The price of excess water loss is loss of water-soluble nutrients and dried-out body cells that cannot function properly.

Some extreme diets that emphasise one group of foods over another can, over an extended period of time, cause a wide range of conditions such as hair loss, dry, scaly skin, an increased risk to chronic disorders and other signs of malnutrition. Some nutrient manipulations such as very low carbohydrate diets may result in loss of muscle protein, headaches, bad breath from excess acid production and general fatigue.

REDUCING DIETS

Irrespective of the nutrient manipulation of popular diets, the basic premise for weight loss is reduced caloric intake. How you accomplish this is based on personal preference. Consider three different types of breakfast below, all providing similar caloric intakes but based on differing philosophies of dieting.

Although these represent three different types of diets, the calories are about the same, therefore they have similar weight-gain potentials but differ in nutrients provided. Moreover, even for the nutrients present, none by itself will provide the total quantity needed for the day. The key is learning how to balance the rest of the day's intake to provide the total calories desired, while ensuring an adequate intake of nutrients.

INDIVIDUALISED DIETS

In developing diets, a range of possibilities exists for meeting personal needs. Even if two persons had the same nutritional needs, they could meet these needs in different ways depending on cultural, social, personal and other factors. An individualised diet gives more flexibility and variety and the likelihood of maintaining it over the long term is therefore greater. To determine if your diet is appropriate it should satisfy the following criteria ­ your nutritional needs, personal food preferences, cultural eating patterns and styles, personal lifestyle factors such as daily schedules and can be adapted to different situations like eating out. If all of these are considered, then you are more likely to have designed a diet that is right for you.

Patricia Thompson M.Sc., Registered Nutritionist, Nutrition and Diet Services.