March 25, 2017
Top 10 Diets in America. Compare them with the Mediterranean Diet!
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Top 10 diets, which should I choose?
America top 10 diets
Health magazine has created a list of America’s Top 10 Healthiest Diets (Top 10 Healthiest Diets) to try in 2009. The selection has been done by a panel of respected experts; however, most of the chosen diets have something in common:
a) They are not long-term oriented nutrition plans but temporary weight loss treatments.
b) All of them could be inspired or enclosed in a lifelong diet called Mediterranean Diet, not included in the list.
Most of these diets have a problem: after the goal has been achieved, and many times even before this happens, the person returns to their old habits. Then, the weight gaining process returns in a stronger way, as the body has “learned” that it has to “save” for future scarceness. Also, the diet has created a psychological need for eating certain banned foods, which normally are the more delicious and mouthwatering.
Nothing of this happens with the lifelong Mediterranean Diet, a model which is continued after the problem has disappeared.
Our intention is to compare the “10 Top American Diets” with the Mediterranean Diet, which is in my opinion more “American” than the other ten, as it was discovered by Dr. Ancel Keys, from the University of Minnesota Public Health School, given its name by the International Conference on the Diets of the Mediterranean in 1993, sponsored by The Harvard School of Public Health, the World Health Organization and the Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust, and finally promoted by Doctor Willett, Head of the Nutrition Department at Harvard University. This and no other was the origin of the concept “Mediterranean Diet”. It is true that the dietary pattern was found in the most deprived zones of Greece, Italy and Spain.
Let’s review these top 10 diets:
1. The Structure House Weight Loss Plan
It is, in many opinions, a diet which tries to eliminate the obesity roots. What is hidden behind certain food craving or compulsive and uncontrolled overeating? Most of the time it’s frustration, depression, disappointment and/or boredom.
People do know (better than they care to admit) what they must do to lose weight. The problem is that they need a strong reason to do it.
The book, which can be browsed and bought at Amazon, states: “It’s not food that makes you fat. It’s your eating behavior”
It shares with the Mediterranean Diet things like lifestyle, physical activity, family meetings and spending time outdoors.
2. The Step Diet
The book, for sale at Amazon with a 32% discount on the original price, can be browsed online. You can read things like: “It is more important to count steps than to count calories. 10,000 steps a day” Ok. This is in agreement with the Mediterranean Diet Loss Weight Plan.
3. Weight Watchers
This is more of a strategy that a dietary pattern. People celebrate meeting where they can learn how to handle hunger and beat temptation, where they can choose the right food and forget their problems.
Is this not included in the Mediterranean Diet?
4. The EatingWell Diet
This diet recommends eating well and offers a model very similar to the Mediterranean Diet. Have a look at the recipes. I definitely agree with most of what this diet comprises, as it seems to be a subset of the former. The book, for sale at Amazon, cannot be browsed online, but can be bought at a 34% discount. It gives an idea of its success.
5. The Volumetrics Eating Plan
Nutritionist Barbara Rolls, tell us that there is a fundamental human quality: “Everybody wants to feel full”. She thinks that the best way to lose weight is to eat as much low-calorie food as possible in order to stuff ourselves. It is true that she recommends fruits and vegetables, but this diet can be potentially dangerous if made without medical advice.
The problem is that Dr. Rolls’ starting premise is wrong. People do not need to feel stuffed. People need to feel satisfied, which is not the same. If your stomach is filled with fruits and vegetables until you cannot eat any more, a couple of hours later you will rush to the fridge to eat something “solid”, and you may attack the chocolate, the ice cream or the pie.
The second point is that if you fill up your body every day, and several times a day, you will make your stomach bigger and bigger, needing more and more forage to fill the dilated stomach. Your diet will turn into the “elephant diet”, or even worse, into “the goose diet”. Another reason why this diet might be potentially dangerous is that it will probably be not balanced unless you follow medical control. The book at Amazon can be bought at a 32% discount ,and is browsable online.
Consequently, this is a diet I do not agree with. To feel satisfied you have to carefully choose the food and eat it slowly to give time to your brain to “acknowledge receipt” of the intake, always trying to keep the volume of your stomach in a normal level. As opposed to this diet, the Mediterranean Diet, is perfectly balanced, and includes lots of fruits and vegetables.
6. The Best Life Diet
This diet is nothing but one of the multiple commercial plans more concerned in selling their branded books and products than in addressing the problems of those affected by excessive weight. The “life diet” has chosen its name to transmit the sensation than it can be a lifelong nutrition pattern. If you visit their website you will not find any hint or advice except that “There is no secret to losing weight. It’s simple physics; what you put in vs. what you put out”. How true. For the details about how this diet works, you will have to buy the Bob Greene’s book. It’s for sale in Amazon, and can be browsed and purchased at a 32% discount. Part of the principles of the Mediterranean Diet.
7. The Solution
Another book, another guideline (in the book) and another diet “of the interaction of mind, body, and lifestyle”. The most positive part of this plan is that it targets the root causes of weight problems. The book in Amazon can be browsed.
8. You: On a Diet
The book is also for sale at Amazon and has the option of “Search inside the book”. It has another 34% discount. I read a few pages and it’s a good basic nutrition work. Lots of truths but nothing new. However, it can be a valid guideline.
9. The Sonoma Diet
In this case the book of Connie Guttersen does not allow searching inside, but has a 34% discount. I particularly like this diet because it is a carbon copy of the Mediterranean Diet, wines included. Connie has been very clever in developing a model which by any means is followed by the population of Sonoma, but may help people to be healthier.
10. The Spectrum
The experts liked the holistic approach of this diet, which includes meditation. But setting this aside, this diet is largely influenced by the Mediterranean Diet. The book can be bought in Amazon with a 32% discount on the original price. Once more, you cannot search inside.
About The Excluded Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean Diet implies exercise, activity, healthy nutrition and natural products. Mediterranean Diet means to accept any type of food except artificial ones. Also, Mediterranean Diet means not to despise exquisite delicacies in occasions, avoiding giving appearing in front of others as an eccentric person (object of silent social rejection and mocking in the work environment) who refuses having an exquisite and healthy meal. Most of the diets make your life miserable. This is the reason why they are abandoned after a certain period of time. This does not happen with the Mediterranean Diet. If you follow it you will not have psychological lacks.
But the Mediterranean Diet also means priorities and proportions. Normally it follows a dietary pattern in which exercise, fruits, vegetables, carbohydrates, fish and olive oil are the main ingredients. Also, you can tailor your Mediterranean Diet to either lose or gain weight.
FAQS. POST:
To FAQ 1. ¿Who invented the Mediterranean Diet?
To FAQ 2. Who discovered the Mediterranean Diet?
You may want to go to the Mediterranean Diet Weight Loss Plan