Fad diets explained

There is so much content around that it can get pretty difficult to figure out what's real and what's fake. I remember reading so much about the different diets around and after listening to them all, I was pretty much left with nothing! Anyway, I thought it was important to do a little research and round up the most popular diets out there to see what's really healthy! Of course, I should state that I'm not a nutritionist or a doctor though.

Atkins

This is a low-carb diet similar to the Keto diet. The official Atkins website says:

"A low-carb diet is suitable for everyone: for people who want to lose or maintain their weight and feel healthier and more energetic. Because even when you have reached your ideal weight, eating low-carb is a healthy and varied way of life. You will notice that low-carb living will give you a more energised feeling and has a positive effect on your body and health".

The diet has 4 phases:

• 1 (induction): Consume less than 20 grams of carbs per day for 2 weeks. Eat high-fat, high-protein, with low-carb vegetables. This kick-starts the weight loss.

• 2 (balancing): Start to add more nuts, low-carb vegetables and small amounts of fruit.

• 3 (fine-tuning): When you’re very close to your goal weight, add more carbs to your diet until weight loss slows down.

• 4 (maintenance): Here you can eat as many healthy carbs as your body can tolerate without regaining weight.

The science behind carbs:

Carbs on the whole aren't the problem with weight loss and they don't have to be avoided at all costs to 1) be healthy and / or 2) lose weight. However, it is true that some carbs are better for us than others. Carbs are made up of sugar, starch and fibre. They are our main form of energy and the fibre in them is vital for healthy bowels. There are 2 different types of carbs: wholegrain and refined. Unlike wholegrain carbs, refined carbs like white rice and white pasta have had their fibre and nutrients removed so they're not as beneficial for us. If you do want to lose weight or in general lead a healthier lifestyle, there's no need to cut out wholemeal carbs.

Although getting rid of carbs altogether may be an easy short-term way to lose weight, it's incredibly unsustainable for your whole lifetime. Find out more about carbs on the NHS website.

Healthline say: "Carbohydrates are not an "essential" nutrient. However, many carb-rich plant foods are loaded with beneficial nutrients, so avoiding them is a bad idea."

Although carbs aren't essential to your diet, I don't see a reason to eliminate an entire food group if it will not hinder your health or weight loss if that's your goal. I love porridge oats, wholemeal pasta, potatoes, brown rice, vegetables - I eat the lot and any doctor or good PT will tell you that these are great for your body. Lots of people that go to the gym swear by carbs for energy and muscle building too.

Often, many people have a goal weight or want to lose weight for a specific event like a wedding - but what happens afterwards? It's not sustainable to diet forever and why should we? The Atkins diet seems like a quick fix for something short-term but why should we change our body for a specific event or strive for a goal weight that we probably cannot maintain? I would prefer to nourish my body all year round with food that I enjoy, food that makes my body feel energised and wholesome and listen to my hunger queues (including when it wants a takeaway or a packet of biscuits) - that is what sustainable and health means to me.

Paleo

This diet typically includes lean meats, seeds and nuts, fish, fruit and vegetables - basically all of the natural food that humans have been eating since the beginning of time. The Paleo diet believes that our bodies haven't had a chance to digest and get used to the new modern Western diet, like refined sugar and processed food. Although I would never advise to follow a diet religiously, I think this rather resembles a lifestyle choice. I try to nourish my body with as much wholesome goodness as possible but I prefer to add pasta, rice, bulgar wheat or lentils to my plate and of course, dessert!

However, this diet doesn't include dairy and I don't support eliminating any food unless you have a medical condition or if you're vegan / vegetarian of course. Whilst I am trying to cut down on certain food like meat and dairy, it would not be beneficial for my mental health if I cut them out completely.

No diet should be followed religiously, but if you want to have a certain philosophy of food to follow that's totally ok and doesn't have to hold restriction or food guilt tendencies.

80/20

"80 percent healthy choices and 20 percent flexibility for less healthy options" - Chrissy Carrol.

Again, this isn't necessarily a diet but more of a lifestyle. For some people this could mean eating 80% nourishing foods in the week and then having 20% treats at the weekend but it doesn't matter how you do it. It doesn't involve counting calories or monitoring your food so it's way less restrictive than a lot of diets - I like that it doesn't tell you what foods you can or can't consume and it's emphasis on 'moderation' is really key for some people! Also, the emphasis here is not to resent healthy options but to enjoy making and choosing those 80% nourishing meals.

If your goal is to lose weight I believe this is an efficient and healthy way to achieve it without going to extreme unnecessary lengths and it's definitely more sustainable and suitable for a lifestyle choice. We should be encouraged to take care of our body but it doesn't have to be super strict all the time.

Problems

However, if you are following this diet / lifestyle then there are some things to be wary of. On occasion you might eat more than moderation and it's important not to beat yourself up about this. I have an issue with the language that tends to be used like 'cheat days' and categorising food into 'good' and 'bad' treats because that encourages us to feel guilty for choosing certain options. Whilst eating brownies or ice cream isn't necessarily nutritious for your body, it can be nourishing in other ways - watching a movie with sweets or going out for drinks with your friends is fun and therapeutic.

You may get too fixated upon that strict 80% and 20% when you should actually just be listening to your body and acing accordingly. I've read some articles that say their 20% is still nourishing by choosing 'healthier' treats, and whilst I believe eating nourishing food is important to our health and well-being, I will not deny myself a tub of Ben and Jerry's if I fancy it.

Juicing / meal replacement

They may seem like a super easy, uncomplicated and a quick way to lose weight but it is SO unsustainable and not as healthy as you think. Even if you did this for a whole week, you're more likely to put all the weight back on afterwards when you go back to normal so it seems very counter-productive and screams diet culture at me!

Cosmopolitan say "each serving contains no more than 140 calories—barely enough for a quick bite, let alone a meal" - says Dr. Lofton.

If you had 3-5 meal replacements a day that is only 420-700 calories a day which is a CRAZY low amount. Even if your goal is to lose weight 1) you can find those calories in nutritious meals and 2) you still need more calories than that.

I can't understand why you would choose a juice or a meal replacement shake when you could make a super nourishing meal that is way better for you and won't hinder your weight loss. A shake would not satisfy me in the slightest and there is so much evidence for eating your veg, fish and grains that I can't fathom why you wouldn't choose that option?

We've all seen the Flat Tummy Co and Boo Tea ads on Instagram by various celebrities that promote cleansing and de-bloating and I can tell you that they do indeed combat bloat but 'cleanse' is an odd word to use for pooping out all of the nutrients in your body... that's right, these shakes are laxatives. Not so glamorous now ey?

Oh and we can't forget the appetite suppressing lolly pops can we? - your appetite needs to be suppressed with food. Hunger should not be avoided and it's not this evil voice in our heads telling us we're fat and greedy - it's our bodies natural queues telling us that it needs some nourishment to function!

Although I'm often skeptical about doctors that promote diets and write anal articles about the right nutrition options - Dr Axe did say that the ingredients in most meal replacement shakes / juices include chemicals, he says that we're better off finding our nutrition from natural food.

"Whenever you see hard-to-pronounce ingredients, that’s an instant red flag for unnatural and highly processed foods. But the most flagrant offense comes from the fact that practically NONE of these items come from real, whole food ingredients at all. In fact, most are completely factory made".

In conclusion, I love a smoothie or a juice as much as the next girl but I would never ever eat it in replacement of a meal because I love food way too much and my body deserves more.

Raw

This diet includes only eating food that hasn't been heated above 48°C - anything that hasn't been refined, canned or chemically processed. It believes that heat destroys the natural enzymes and vitamins in food. If you suddenly switch to a raw diet then your weight will probably decrease drastically, but that's only because you've likely drastically reduced your calories. According to the BBC, there isn't any scientific evidence to suggest that cooking your food is bad for you - you can read more into the science of it here.

Healthline says: "overall, following a raw food diet may lead to weight loss or even improve some markers of health, such as blood lipids. But despite this, the significant risk of negative health effects outweighs the potential benefits of this diet".

Although consuming lots of nuts, veg and fruit initially sounds healthy, I would argue that this diet lacks a lot of nutrition in terms of the amount of calories and lack of nutrients and protein, and importantly, lacks enjoyment!

Gluten free

Remember when everyone suddenly decided that gluten was making us all fat and bloated? Me too.

Celiac disease is an immune reaction to eating gluten which causes uncomfortable bloating, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Lots of celebrities and people that suffer with the disease noted that after they eliminated gluten from their diet, their stomach stoped bloating. I think that led regular people to thinking cutting gluten out was the answer to their bloating problems too.

But believe it or not, bloating is normal! I bloat after a big bowl of vegetables sometimes - does that mean I should cut them out? No. If you do not suffer from celiac disease but experience bloating like we all do, there is no reason to cut gluten from your diet. Although gluten contains no essential health benefits, I think we can all agree that it's pretty tasty. But of course, all things should be eaten in moderation so whilst it's not best to live off only pasta, bread and processed food - you don't have to eliminate them altogether for a healthy lifestyle.

However, if you do think that you have an intolerance you could try cutting them out and monitoring your results.

The 5:2 diet

This is an intermittent fasting diet.

"Intermittent fasting is a diet regimen that cycles between brief periods of fasting, with either no food or significant calorie reduction, and periods of unrestricted eating" - Harvard School of Public Health.

In this particular diet, you would eat 5 days of the week 'normally' and 2 days you would be restricted to 500-600 calories per day. The diet stresses that on your 'normal' days you should eat regularly rather than making up for the calories you lost fasting.

Although there is actually evidence to suggest this diet has health benefits and can aid weight loss, it is not the right method for everyone - particularly people that need to eat at regular intervals because of health conditions like diabetes, people who have suffered from eating disorders and pregnant women.

I like that this lifestyle doesn't ask you to cut any food groups out but as someone who has suffered from an eating disorder, the restriction aspect would not work for me. As I've said previously, I would prefer to eat nourishing food every day and incorporate what my body fancies, when.

---

I'd also like to note that taking care of your body should be a lifestyle choice. We should take care of our physical, mental and spiritual selves because if we take care of them, they will take care of us. Yes, weight loss can better our health and there's nothing wrong with wanting to get fit or eat well. But for so many of us, our weight loss journey is defined by how we want to look. If you are going to embark on a health journey or a lifestyle change, you must focus on the non-appearance related aspects.

Thanks for sticking with this lengthy blog post - I hope it helped you in some small way. Don't be afraid to get in contact and let me know your thoughts / opinions on anything I've covered.

Emmanuelle ❀