4 popular diet myths busted
It seems that every time a so-called “diet secret” is revealed, we are expected to believe that we have found the answer to weight loss.
Yet if eating nothing but cabbage soup actually worked to control our weight and improve our health, wouldn’t we all just be doing that?
Unfortunately, science doesn’t always back up the claims of the latest ‘health guru’ on their blog or Instagram feed.
Today we are sorting out the fact from the fiction in four of today’s most well-known diets.
1. Juice cleanse
The premise is simple, take a few days off from eating and drink nothing but fruits and vegetables to give your digestion a break. While it’s likely to cause weight loss (due to the number of visits to the loo you will need), a juice cleanse is not the cure-all that it claims to be. Once you go back to normal eating it is likely that any kilos lost will be regained. However, anything that encourages people to ingest more fruit and vegetables is a good thing.
Instead: enjoy a fresh juice sometimes, and try bulking it out with lots of veggies to reduce the sugar load.
2. Quit sugar
The message about the evils of sugar is real: over-consumption has been linked to the development of diabetes and heart disease. But be sure you understand the specifics of the new craze before you go cutting out all sugar from your diet. Some people take it to the extreme, removing even natural sugars found in fruit and vegetables from their meal plans, but this is not the ideal.
Instead: definitely quit the processed sugars such as cakes, biscuits, ice cream and soft drink, but natural sugars are perfectly fine as part of a healthy diet.
3. Go paleo
The idea with this is that we should eat like our cavemen ancestors, in order to reduce the risk of diabetes, auto-immune disease and heart problems. Going paleo means that you give up grains, sugar, dairy, alcohol, and legumes and focus instead on meat, nuts, seeds, fruit and veggies. While this sounds plausible, it can cause deficiencies in calcium, as well as fatigue from a lack of carbohydrate. Paleo enthusiasts espouse the benefits but the proof is in the (grain, sugar and dairy-free) pudding. It definitely works for some people, but others are left scratching their head about what they can eat when bread, oats, cheese, wine and yoghurt is off the menu.
Instead: the reduction of processed foods is great, but many can find it hard in the long term to forego all grains and dairy.
4. Give up the gluten
Bread is evil! Down with flour! Many people find that going gluten free does in fact reduce their weight. Cutting out foods such as bread, cake, biscuits, muffins, crackers and cereal also cuts out a lot of junk from your diet, which is definitely a good thing. But unless you are celiac or have digestive issues that are affected by gluten, it is not necessary to remove it from your diet permanently.
Our takeout: reducing processed carbs such as cake and bread from your diet will help you lose weight, but there’s no need to eliminate it entirely unless you are allergic.
Have you had success with any of these diets? We would love to hear from you in the comments.