Diet is the first way people want to lose weight. But what do we really know about them?
As an old joke says, women are worried about two problems: how to get enough of what to eat and how to lose weight. In order to lose “extra” pounds, the most unexpected recipes from people are used. Some advise eating sprouted wheat in the morning, only walnuts at lunchtime, and a spoonful of honey instead of dinner. Other, no less omniscient people advise to eat only dandelions, plantains or quinoa, etc. Still others recommend eating only raw food (including meat). But there are also popular women’s magazines, and they contain a huge number of very different diets, many of which have a pseudoscientific coloration and, therefore, look convincing in the eyes of a gullible reader (or rather, a reader).
I must say that the diet business is quite profitable – there are no special costs, but the profits from the sale of popular literature are colossal. By writing a “fashionable” book, a nutritionist immediately becomes a “fashionable” specialist and again makes a good profit. And the fact that diets either do not help him or “work” due to the usual self-hypnosis – is it really so important for him? But for you and me it is important, and therefore it is advisable to know at least the basic myths about diets.
Is diet a modern invention?
One woman wanted to lose weight. Comes to the doctor, the doctor prescribes her diet:
“On the first day, you eat everything as before, the third day you skip, you don’t eat anything. Should lose weight by one and a half kilograms. On the fourth day you will come and show yourself.
Three days pass, the woman comes – she lost 15 kg! The doctor is surprised:
– How did you manage it ?!
“Doctor, I did everything as you said: on the first day I ate everything as before, on the second day I also ate everything as before, only on the third day I almost scrambled.
—From what you didn’t eat?
—From the fact that she rode!
One of the favorite anecdotes of nutritionists
Many people think that the interest in low-calorie diets is a hobby inherent in modern people. However, this is not quite true. The origins of modern diet therapy are in the distant past. For example, in China, the first dietitians existed already during the Zhou dynasty (c. II century BC), they gave their recommendations for the treatment and prevention of various diseases.
So, thin children were recommended thick rice broth (however, do not confuse it with a rice diet, which is used, on the contrary, for weight loss), egg yolks, beans, fish, that is, foods rich in complete proteins, as well as vegetables and fruits rich in vitamins and mineral salts. For edema, it was recommended to eat black bean porridge, for coughing – from almonds. With dysentery – fish porridge. Elderly people were instructed to eat often and little by little.
Ancient nutritionists argued that nutrition should take into account the individual characteristics of a person. The body needs all products, but their ratio and quantity should change depending on age, constitution, habits, climate.
So, for example, in the winter time they gave preference to food, “warming” the body. These are eggs, dishes made from grain products: wheat, barley, oats; spicy food – onions, young radishes, peppers; fatty fish and meat. In winter, the metabolism is activated, so you can eat more spicy and fatty foods.
In summer, on the contrary, the body needs cooling, and the diet should be dominated by “cooling” foods: rice, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, radishes, fruits, berries, duck, veal, fish (lean), etc.
Healing diets were used by almost all great healers: Avicenna, Paracelsus, Hippocrates. Hippocrates said: “Your food must become medicine, and your medicine must be food.”
From the middle of the XNUMXth century, naturopathy as a separate direction began to develop in Germany. In the XX century, it reached a special heyday in Switzerland, Germany, England, America.
Are “trendy” diets effective?
“Nutrition has always been an irrational branch of health care. With a wide variety of diseases, she in a grotesque form imposed harsh dietary therapies, thereby torturing patients, “- said the professor of medicine Michael Berger.
It is estimated that there are currently over 28 diets in the world. Interestingly, 000% of Americans start a new diet at least once a year. There is no data on how often our compatriots “go on a diet,” but probably not much less than Americans.
Let me note right away that we are not talking about therapeutic diets (specially developed and recommended in medical practice food rations), but about the so-called “fashionable diets”, those that promise an ideal figure in a week or two, a month and getting rid of all diseases. And there are a great many such diets: a low-calorie, protein diet for quick weight loss, a grapefruit diet and the equally popular apple diet, and in addition – the English diet, the astronaut diet and many others.
A distinctive feature of almost all “fashionable diets” is that in most cases they do not help. And first of all, due to the fact that they are built on the violent restriction of themselves in any products. Only in rare cases do people with remarkable will manage to “remake” themselves with the help of a diet. Basically, the torment that a person goes to, applying this or that diet, are ineffectual. John Foreith, PhD, director of the Houston College of Medicine Nutrition Clinic, says: “Fashionable diets that are completely carbohydrate-free or based on one type of food, such as grapefruit or watermelon, can cause problems with concentration and the ability to think clearly by the third day. When we spend too much energy worrying about food, it doesn’t have the best effect on all aspects of life. “
It turns out that about 90% of people who are on different diets in the hope of losing weight subsequently gain their former pounds on average in five years. This is the conclusion reached by the heads of the US National Institutes of Health, who discussed the effectiveness of various methods of weight loss.
Studies by the American Association have shown that overly determined attempts by young girls to lose weight (diet, vigorous exercise, appetite suppressants, laxatives, and deliberate vomiting) increase the chances that they will become very fat over time. Whereas people who are not trying to lose weight usually find it much easier to keep fit.
And not so long ago, British doctors from King’s College London proved that the fat that accumulates when you quit the diet again can be more dangerous for you than the original one. Professor Tom Saunders notes: “If you go on a diet and quit over and over again, your fat distribution changes. The newly gained fat is deposited primarily in the abdominal cavity, near the internal organs, and not between the muscles and skin on the sides and thighs. ” According to doctors, this is very dangerous, as fat seeps from there into the liver and bloodstream, causing a sharp increase in blood cholesterol levels. And this, in turn, leads to the risk of stroke and can lead to the formation of stones in the gallbladder, since some of the cholesterol is able to crystallize there.
Those who have repeatedly tried diets in order to lose weight have noticed that it is more and more difficult to do this each time. The body remembers the diet as an extreme case, and each time it resists it more and more.
So, dieting puts you at risk of heart disease, gallstones, diabetes, anemia, cancer, and osteoporosis. You will also have dry, brittle hair sticking out in different directions, an unhealthy complexion, dull eyes. You will begin to feel depressed and, most importantly, soon you will certainly get fat again.
So what should those who want to lose weight do? It is best not to rely on miraculous diets or pills, but to lead a healthy lifestyle, eat right and move more. Listen to the words of the spokesman for the American Association of Institutes of Health William Hall: “Forget the word ‘diet’. Eat more fruits, vegetables and grains and make only those healthy changes to your diet that you can stick to for the rest of your life. “
– Doctor, I can no longer sustain this diet. Imagine, yesterday I almost bit off my husband’s ear.
-It’s OK. Just think, only eighty calories.
Another favorite anecdote of nutritionists
Some believe that “harsh,” rigid diets are particularly effective. This is nothing more than a myth. These carbohydrate-free diets drive the water away. The practitioner of such a diet quickly loses weight and rejoices, thinking that he has got rid of fat. Alas, fat goes away very slowly, but builds up very quickly after a diet. Moreover, more often than before, weight is gained. This is due to the fact that if every day a shortage of more than 1000 calories, the body rebuilds to a rigid diet. The metabolic process slows down by 10-30%, that is, calories are burned more slowly. After such a diet, a person returns to their old habits. But the body does not have time to quickly rebuild in a new way and still slowly burns calories, hence the new sharp increase in weight.
Another important point: in people on a severe diet, the brain, deprived of the usual feeding in the form of glucose, can, as it were, “go on strike”, which is sometimes expressed in the fact that a person develops neuropsychiatric disorders.
The most severe of these can eventually cause heart disease or cancer. Well-known nutritionist William Pokhlebkin speaks out about the dangers of mono-diets: “The main thing is not to eat one potato or one black caviar all the time. This spoils the metabolism. Many people think that the body is a furnace, whatever you throw in it, everything will burn out, and heat will be generated. But no. Understand that the body cannot specialize in only one kefir (I say this for those who want to lose weight) or only vegetables. An organism cannot have a narrow specialization only in one particular product. “
British psychologists tested sixty perfectly healthy women for attention, memorization and reaction speed. Moreover, the first test “experimental” passed after a strict diet, and the second – after eating to the full. The results of the “hungry” test were 20-30% worse than the “full” one. This allowed scientists to make a categorical conclusion: diet is a real stress with all the ensuing consequences.
Other dietary misconceptions
French nutritionists point out a number of misconceptions:
It is believed, for example, that vitamins contribute to weight loss.
This is not entirely true. Even the most perfect vitamin cocktail will not provide a slim figure for someone who loves to eat in excess.
Raw foods are better than cooked foods.
Everything is far from so simple. Some vegetables, such as eggplants and green beans, contain toxic substances that become harmless only after being cooked. In addition, raw foods are not always digestible in the stomach (see Raw Vegetables article).
Enzymes burn fat.
In fact, there are no enzymes that break down fat. Enzyme-rich fruits like pineapple and papaya, which are credited with “fat-burning” properties, actually only aid digestion, which is, of course, also good. However, their consumption is unreasonable when a person eats dietary, low-calorie food.
Salad is the elixir of a slim figure.
This opinion is to some extent true, since lettuce leaves really contain practically no calories. However, they are usually not used in their pure form. And most salad dressings are high in fat: a tablespoon is about 80 calories. Thus, a serving of salad can exceed 660 calories. It is unlikely that such an “elixir” will contribute to weight loss.
Get better only from fat.
In fact, studies show that it doesn’t matter if we eat butter or wholemeal bread. The main thing is the amount of food eaten. An example of this is overweight American women who eat dietary, low-fat biscuits. In fact, you should not deny yourself a small amount of fat – thanks to it we will be satiated much better than a ton of dry biscuits (see the article “Fatty foods”).
In turn, American dietitians identify a number of common misconceptions about food, storage and consumption of food.
Diet foods help you lose weight
This statement is not true. The fact is that diet foods and foods that are eaten with a diet are far from the same. These foods contain the same amount of fat as other foods, and sometimes even more.
Dairy products help ulcers heal.
Unfortunately, this is not true. Experts note that dairy products in patients can increase acidity and irritate the walls of the stomach, as well as cause pain.
To be on the safe side, the pork should be deep fried.
It is not at all necessary to cook pork until its flavor disappears completely. You just need to be sure that it was fried at a temperature of 150-165 ° C.
The liver is very useful.
Everything is far from so simple. The liver, of course, is rich in vitamins, minerals and protein, but it is also high in fat and cholesterol.
In addition, according to the American Dietetic Association, hazardous amounts of chemicals and hormones accumulate in the liver of cattle, which enter the animal’s body along with feed.
Do not put hot food in the refrigerator.
It is believed that hot food should not be put in the refrigerator, because this can lead to spoilage of all other products in it. In fact, hot food in modern refrigerators does not raise the temperature. And if you wait until the food has cooled down, there is a danger of rapid growth of bacteria. Experts advise putting hot food in small quantities. This is explained by the fact that a large volume of hot food – a layer of up to 8 centimeters – can remain warm for a long time, which creates conditions for the growth of microbes.
Snacking is bad.
This has been generally accepted in the medical environment for a long time. However, according to the latest research, it is not how often you eat that matters, but what you eat. Therefore, snacking between regular meals is good if you choose fruit or low-fat yogurt.
It is safer to eat heated food.
This is not always true. The fact is that some bacteria produce toxic substances that poison food. Even if bacteria are killed by heating, harmful toxins remain.
If the food looks and smells normal, you can eat it.
And this is not always the case. Some types of food poisoning bacteria do not change the appearance of foods. Therefore, if you have doubts, it is better not to risk it.
Wood chopping boards are unsanitary.
In any case, this is exactly what the manufacturers of plastic cutting boards say. In fact, there is no difference between them. Plus, some biologists think wood planks are even better.
Mazurkevich S.A.
Encyclopedia of delusions. Food. – M .: Publishing house EKSMO – Press, 2001