Thursday, November 27, 2008

Diet Advice

By Cathereine Night

The American Heart Association says that adopting healthy eating habits permanently, rather than impatiently pursuing quick diets in hopes of losing unwanted pounds in a few days through fad quick weight loss plans.

Many of these fad diets, such as the notorious and outright insane Cabbage Soup Diet, will undermine your health, cause physical discomfort (abdominal pain and flatulence (gas) ) and lead to the ping-pong effect of gaining weight soon after losing it. In other words the risks aren't worth the rewards.

One food or one type of food is generally overemphasized with fad quick weight loss diets. They don't include a variety of foods or good balance, a violation of the first principle of good nutrition, eat a balanced diet that includes a variety of foods.

If you are able to stay on such a diet for more than a few weeks, you may develop nutritional deficiencies, because no one type of food has all the elements a human being needs for good health. The Cabbage Soup Diet is one example. The myth of this diet is that cabbage soup is some sort of fat dissolving potion.

People supposedly lost 10-17 pounds in only a week, eating primarily cabbage soup. Even if the weight loss claim were true, all the damage due to a lack of many essential nutrients would far outweigh (pun intended) the benefits of losing the weight. There are no magic beans, or magic cabbages, or miracle foods for weight loss and good nutrition. Moderation and consuming all the major food groups is the best bet.

These crazy diets also ignore a second important principle of good nutrition which is that eating should be enjoyable.. These diets are so monotonous and boring that it's almost impossible to stay on them for long periods. Consider a week on the Cabbage Soup Diet.

By Wednesday you'd dread meal time, and by Friday you'd never again want to look at a cabbage much less eat the soup. If you make it to Sunday you might die of a heart attack before you ever again tasted real food.

There are many other ways fad diets aren't good ones. Many don't include physical activity, for example, walking 30 minutes most or all days of the week. While doing nothing can lead to heart problems, exercise is a major element of maintaining proper weight. When a diet includes no need for a workout, run the other way.

Quick weight loss is possible. But if a program sounds too good to be true, it is. - 16004

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