Just before the start of New Year, people make resolutions to lose extra pounds, searched for weight loss tips to get healthy, fit and follow a diet plan. Usually by the end of the second month, all energy tapers out. To change that and to keep people from giving up on their goal, many renowned dieticians and doctors have come up with unique, easy and fun diets that don’t feel like punishment. By giving guidance and offering a step-by-step approach to weight loss, recommending healthy recipes and exercise routines, diet plans encourage you through the difficulties so that you reach you ideal weight. Today’s Dietitian, a nutrition magazine and a wellness agency Pollock Communications, conducted a survey of more than 500 registered dietitians and concluded that people all over the world are demanding more information regarding nutrition and weight loss. The results also show that people need advice from renowned and expert dietitians on what to follow and what to throw out.
Keeping this in mind, the dietitians have recognized 10 diet and nutrition trends that will influence people in their weight loss goals in 2014. These trends offer strategies for weight loss, lower calorie intake, choosing your menu, exercise routines and what not.
1) The Paleo Diet: Dr. Loren Cordain came up with this diet plan after decades of research. The diet’s popularity has soared as most people are trying to eat what complements their daily activities. The Paleo diet is based on the wholesome food our hunting-gathering ancestors would have lived on, millions of years ago. These include fresh meat like beef, lamb, poultry; fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, seeds, nuts, olive, coconuts, flax seeds, walnut, and others. Dairy products, processed foods and cereal grains are not included in this diet.
2) Juice Cleanse Diet: Drinking only juice whole day occasionally, can rid the body of harmful toxins that build up over time. Drinking fruit or vegetable juices flush out free radicals and harmful chemical buildups. They are rich in powerful nutrients and antioxidants, keep you healthy, and nourished. Doing a juice cleanse once a week will surely help you in weight loss. It also helps in taking control, redefining your relationship with food, detoxifying your mind and body, to feel better, look better, heal digestive issues and prevents degenerative diseases.
3) Mediterranean Diet: Crafted by the Mayo Clinic, the Mediterranean Diet plan helps people lose weight in phases. The first two weeks called the “Lose It!” period teaches five healthy habits you should practice and five bad habits you should leave behind. People usually lose 6-10 pounds in this time. The rest of the plan focuses on weight control throughout your life. The plan includes food choices, portion size and menus. During this time, people lose 1-2 pounds per week. According to research, traditional Mediterranean food reduces risk of heart disease, cancer, as well as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. The Mediterranean diet is also recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
4) Master Cleanse Diet: The Master Cleanse is essentially a juice fast, a complete liquid diet that provides the required number of calories and is specifically designed for weight loss and flushing out toxins from your body. It allows your digestive system time to rest and lets the body use its natural healing system. The diet functions in three steps. The first step is the ‘Ease-In’ where 3 days are devoted to removing the processed foods from your diet. The second step is the ‘Lemonade Diet’, which continues for 10 days where you lose the maximum amount of weight. The last step is the ‘Ease-Out’ step and is very important. It includes 3 days where you start to eat solid food that increase in complexity gradually. Stanley Burroughs, the author of “The Master Cleanse” says that the diet will flush out all the diseases from your body and make you healthier than ever.
5) Ketogenic Diet: The diet consists of high-fat foods and eliminates the intake of candy, bread, potatoes, rice, cereals, pasta, cookies and desserts. The foods must be carefully prepared and weighed on a scale and the whole meal must be eaten for diet to be most effective. The fat part is obtained from heavy cream, vegetable oils and butter. The Ketogenic diet is especially beneficial for children who suffer from epilepsy. Almost 50-75% of children with difficult seizures are helped by this diet. Creative new recipes make the diet more palatable to kids. A typical meal includes little bit of vegetable or fruit, high protein, and a large source of fat.
6) Okinawa Diet: This diet is based on the eating habits of the natives of the Ryukyu Islands. The natives have one of the highest life expectancies in the world. The diet consists of purple sweet potatoes that are rich in flavonoids, carotenoids and vitamin E and is the staple; the local cucumbers that lower blood sugar in diabetic patients, very little sugar and salt, small amounts of rice, little fish, lots of soy and legumes, and huge amounts of pork. The principal focus of the diet is knowing the food energy density of each food item, and eating foods according to the energy density, the less the better.
7) Omnivore Diet: As the name suggests, the Omnivore diet includes both plant and animal foods. This is the most common type diet among humans. There are large varieties of diet plans that fall in the Omnivore category, so it is difficult to generalize. However, a balanced diet that contains both class of foodstuff supplies all necessary nutrients and helps in better health. The Omnivore diet features wholesome foods like lean meat which supplies protein, vitamins B and E, magnesium, iron and zinc while vitamins and minerals present in plant-based foods help keeping obesity at bay and fights against diseases like cancer, stroke, kidney stones, osteoporosis and diabetes. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that in a study involving vegetarians and omnivores, the omnivores gained more fat-free muscles during training exercises than their vegetarian counterparts.
8) Fruitarian Diet: A Fruitarian diet consists of a diet that is made up of 75% fruit. Nuts and seeds may also be included along with other vegan and raw foods. Animal products and grains are not included. The benefits of a fruitarian diet include less calorie intake, no cooking and good for health. Fruits have very low calories, for example, one serving of strawberries has less than 100 calories, banana has less calories and it is rich in vitamins, minerals and fiber. Fruit is eaten raw and hence there is no cooking required. People are less prone to constipation and the wholesome nutrients are known to boost the immune system. Raspberries pack 8 g of fiber, which is a third of the recommended daily fibre intake for women; prunes, and berries are also excellent antioxidants, which give clear skin.
9) Pescatarian Diet: The ‘pescatarian’ is someone whose only source of meat is sea food. They refrain from eating dairy products though some may include them in their diet. A Pescatarian diet includes fish, mollusks, and crustaceans, along with fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, cereals and pulses. There are many reasons to choose this type of diet. Ethically this kind of diet is kinder to animals and better for the environment. The health reasons include that seafood is very low in saturated fat; many fish are a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids and contribute to raising good cholesterol. Fish protein and oils are known to cure and prevent heart disease.
10) Flexitarian Diet: Being a ‘flexitarian’ means that you focus more on vegetarianism but you do not give up meat entirely. The diet aims to help you lower your meat intake. Dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner put the theory forward over a decade ago. A typical Flexitarian diet provides 1500 calories into three big meals and two small snacks. Breakfast has 300 calories, lunch 400, dinner 500, and each tiny snack provides 150 calories per day. There is 50 grams of protein intake daily. The diet is laid out in five-week meal plans and many recipes are included. Research has shown that ‘flexitarians’ weigh 15% less than people with more meat intake, have lower rate of heart disease, diabetes and cancer and on an average, live 3.6 years longer.
