Types of Diets

So it’s a New Year and right about now everyone is getting started on new diets (including me). Diets can be good but diets are also temporary most people will start a diet and fall off (which has also happened to me several times). So for me instead of using the word diet I like to use the word Lifestyle because you should want to your healthy eating habits to be a lifestyle with a room for certain foods in moderation or sometimes foods.

But being that it is a New Year this blog post is going to be about all about diets and some of the common diets that we hear about today. Now, there are a lot of diets out there but in this blog post I am only going to be talking about 5 diets which are:

1. The Vegan Diet
2. The Mediterranean Diet 
3. The Paleo Diet
4. The DASH Diet
5. The Atkins Diet

The Vegan Diet is currently a favorite of mines because being someone that deals with acid reflux I realized following a vegan diet works better for it. Even though I am not fully vegan I buy a lot of vegan products whether its food and even for my body. So what exactly is Vegan? One a vegan diet it excludes anything that comes from animals. So almond milk, cashew milk, almond yogurt, non-dairy yogurt, tofu, fruits, and vegetables plus legumes all fall into the vegan category.

The Mediterranean Diet 

Coronary Heart Disease has been a problem in America for many years. This type of diet is centered around just that. This diet was created to resemble the types of diets eaten in Greece and Italy or countries along the Mediterranean Sea. The way they would eat in these countries produced lower numbers in heart disease then here in the US. This diet is mostly a plant based diet eating lots of fruits and vegetables and healthy fats such as avocados and olive oils. You also focus on eating whole grains and limiting eating red meats and dairy but you can still eat meat and dairy just not in large amounts.

The Paleo Diet 

The Paleo Diet was basically created to mimic the type of diets that hunters and gatherers/ early humans would eat. In this diet you would be eating lean meats such as , fish,fruits,veggies, seeds, and nuts. You can also have dairy products, legumes, and grains but have these in very limited amounts. This type of diet helps with weight loss and to maintain weight and is good for obesity, heart disease, and diabetes prevention. 

The DASH Diet

Now I’m sure you guys have all probably heard of this diet. The DASH diet was created for people with hypertension. DASH means dietary approaches to stop hypertension. The main goal is to reduce the amount of sodium in your diet and eat more fruits and vegetables and grains. You can also still have dairy, meat, and fish.

The Atkins Diet

Last but not least is the Atkins Diet. When reviewing this at first I was a little confused. To start this diet is a low carb diet. This is the type of diet you go on when you want to lose weight and limit those carbs. This diet can also improve blood sugar levels and cholesterol levels. So while your reducing your carbs you are increasing your protein intake and that is what keeps you full and eating less. The confusing part for me was the 4 phases. So you have to make sure you keep up with the phases so that you are following this diet correctly. 

Phase 1- This is called the induction. In this phase you must reduce your carb intake to less than 20 grams per day for two weeks.

Phase 2- This phase is called balancing. Find your balance thats the goal. You will slowly add nuts and low carb veggies such as zucchini’s, broccoli, cauliflower, and cucumbers.

Phase 3 – This phase is called fine tuning. In this phase you will begin adding back carbs until your weight loss slows down. Very Tricky!

Phase 4 – This phase is called maintenance. In this phase you eat as many carbs (healthy) carbs as possible without gaining weight.

Examples of some foods to avoid on this diet:

1. Sodas
2. Ice Cream
3. Fruit Juice
4. Rice
5. Barely
6. Canola Oil
7. Soybean Oil
8. Diet foods/Low fat foods

** When writing this blog a lot of it comes from prior knowledge of nutrition combined with viable resources for this blog post the source I used was www.healthline.com please visit healthline for more information on these diets**

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