Jeffrey Salazar
There are thousands of diets, and they can be classified in various ways. One way to categorise diets is by their nutritional approach, which can be therapeutic, maintenance, or experimental. Therapeutic diets are designed to treat or heal a disease or medical symptom, such as lowering cholesterol or blood pressure. Maintenance diets are everyday diets that support one's healing or are chosen for their followers' families. Lastly, experimental diets involve playing with different foods to see how they affect the body.
Another way to categorise diets is by their aim or the type of food they include. For example, some diets are for losing weight, while others are for gaining weight, lowering cholesterol, or living a long and healthy life. Some diets are weight-loss diets, such as the Zone Diet, the HCG Diet, and the Master Cleanse. Other diets are classified by the type of food they include, such as the Paleo diet, which eliminates sugar, processed foods, grains, and dairy, and the Mediterranean diet, which focuses on the nutritional habits of Southern European countries.
3 Types of Diets:
| Characteristics | Therapeutic | Maintenance | Experimental |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | To treat or heal a disease or medical symptom | Everyday meals for your family | To play with the possibilities of what a particular diet can do for the body |
| Examples | Diets to lower cholesterol or blood pressure levels, diets to work with diabetes, and diets for people with specific food allergies | The Mediterranean diet, The Paleo diet, The Zone Diet, The Flexitarian diet | Trying different supplements or considering going vegan |
| Benefits | Dramatic healing, widely used in both traditional and alternative healing sciences | Sustainable and healthy way of eating | Exciting sense of newness and discovery to one's diet |
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What You'll Learn
- Fad diets: short-term weight-loss plans involving drastic changes to eating habits, e.g. the cabbage soup diet
- Therapeutic diets: designed to treat or heal a disease or medical symptom, e.g. lowering cholesterol or blood pressure
- Maintenance diets: nutritional approaches to maintaining a certain weight, like the Zone Diet
- Experimental diets: an approach to dieting where individuals explore the effects of different foods on their bodies
- Religious diets: diets influenced by religious beliefs, e.g. the I-tal diet followed by Rastafarians
Fad diets: short-term weight-loss plans involving drastic changes to eating habits, e.g. the cabbage soup diet
Fad diets are short-term weight-loss plans that involve drastic changes to a person's eating habits. They are often marketed as a quick fix for obesity and are usually associated with some degree of nutritional or health risk. Fad diets are typically rigid in their rules and promote short-term changes instead of achieving lifelong sustainable goals. They are characterised by a promise of rapid weight loss, the absence of physical activity guidelines, a focus on one type of food or the elimination of any food group, and a lack of scientific evidence to support their claims.
Fad diets can be tempting as they promise rapid results, but they are not a long-term solution and are often unsustainable and unhealthy. For example, the cabbage soup diet, a recurring fad diet since the 1950s, is a low-calorie diet based on heavy consumption of cabbage soup. This diet severely restricts calories, which can lead to weight loss, but this extreme approach is not recommended as calories are essential for the body to function.
Another example is the grapefruit diet, which involves consuming grapefruit in large quantities at mealtimes. This diet also severely restricts calories and is considered a fad due to its emphasis on a single type of food. Similarly, the Beverly Hills Diet, introduced in 1981, is considered a fad diet as it involves extreme changes to food consumption, starting with only fruits in the first days and gradually increasing the selection of foods over six weeks.
Fad diets are often associated with unrealistic combinations and nutritional inadequacy due to the complete elimination of one or more essential food groups. They may lead to initial weight loss, but this is often lean muscle and fluid loss instead of body fat. In addition, fad diets can be expensive, requiring the purchase of unnecessary food products, ingredients, and/or supplements.
It is important to note that there is no "magic diet" that serves as a universal solution for everyone. A qualified dietitian can help guide individuals through the maze of dietary information and provide safe, unbiased, evidence-based advice.
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Therapeutic diets: designed to treat or heal a disease or medical symptom, e.g. lowering cholesterol or blood pressure
Therapeutic diets are designed to treat or heal a disease or medical symptom, such as lowering cholesterol or blood pressure. They are often recommended by medical professionals for people with specific medical needs.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a common preventable risk factor for heart disease. Lifestyle changes, including dietary modifications, can help lower blood pressure levels and reduce the risk of heart disease. Doctors may recommend the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) for those with high blood pressure. This diet involves consuming large quantities of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products, while avoiding sugar-sweetened foods, red meat, and fats. Additionally, including foods rich in potassium and magnesium, such as Swiss chard and spinach, can help lower blood pressure. Nuts and seeds are also beneficial due to their high content of fiber and arginine, an amino acid that helps produce nitric oxide, which is essential for blood vessel relaxation and blood pressure reduction.
Drinking orange and grapefruit juice may also help reduce blood pressure, although grapefruit can interfere with common medications for lowering blood pressure. Fatty fish, such as salmon, are excellent sources of omega-3 fats, which have been shown to lower blood pressure levels by reducing inflammation.
High cholesterol is another risk factor for heart disease. Lowering cholesterol can be achieved through dietary changes by adding foods that lower LDL, the harmful cholesterol-carrying particle. A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and plant-based proteins can help lower cholesterol. Oats, barley, psyllium, okra, and eggplant are excellent sources of soluble fiber, which helps lower cholesterol. Polyunsaturated fats found in some foods can directly lower LDL. Plant sterols and stanols, found in margarine and almonds, can block the absorption of cholesterol in the body.
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Maintenance diets: nutritional approaches to maintaining a certain weight, like the Zone Diet
Maintenance diets are nutritional approaches to achieving or maintaining a certain weight. The Zone Diet is one such approach that has been around for several decades and was created by Dr. Barry Sears, an American biochemist. The diet is based on the idea that inflammation is the reason people gain weight, become sick, and age faster. By reducing inflammation, the diet claims to help with weight loss, slow down aging, reduce the risk of chronic disease, and improve performance.
The Zone Diet recommends balancing each meal with one-third protein, two-thirds colourful fruits and vegetables, and a dash of "good" fats, such as olive oil, avocado, or almonds. It encourages followers to eat a specific ratio of macronutrients—40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat—at every meal and snack. This ratio is said to combat inflammation and provide a slow release of sugar into the blood to keep individuals fuller for longer. The diet also limits high-GI carbs, such as bananas, rice, and potatoes, and encourages followers to think of bread, pasta, grains, and starches as condiments rather than main or side dishes.
There are two ways to follow the Zone Diet: the hand-eye method and using Zone food blocks. The hand-eye method is the simplest way to start, allowing individuals to use their hands and eyes to estimate portion sizes and design Zone-friendly plates. Zone food blocks, on the other hand, involve calculating the number of grams of protein, carbs, and fat one can have per day based on weight, height, waist, and hip measurements. The average male eats 14 Zone blocks per day, while the average female eats 11.
The Zone Diet has been criticised for some of its health claims, which critics argue are unfounded. Additionally, while it does not ban any specific foods, it may be challenging for those who enjoy carbs to adjust to the diet. However, the Zone Diet has been proven to help with weight loss, and it also offers other health benefits, such as a reduced risk of heart disease and improved blood sugar control.
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Experimental diets: an approach to dieting where individuals explore the effects of different foods on their bodies
There are many types of diets, and people diet for a variety of reasons, from ethical and religious beliefs to clinical needs or a desire to control their weight. Fad diets are short-term, weight-loss plans that involve drastic changes to a person's normal eating habits and are often considered unhealthy.
Experimental diets can be seen as a form of fad diets, where individuals explore the effects of different foods on their bodies. This approach to dieting can be described as a process of trial and error, where dieters make changes to their food consumption and observe the resulting effects on their physical and mental health. For example, some people might cut out certain food groups, such as carbohydrates or sugars, to see if their energy levels or weight are impacted. Others might focus on increasing their intake of specific nutrients, such as protein or fibre, to see if it has any noticeable benefits.
Experimental diets can also involve more extreme changes, such as juice fasting, where nutrition is obtained solely from fruit and vegetable juices, or the Master Cleanse, which substitutes tea and lemonade for food. These types of diets are often controversial and may not be recommended by medical professionals due to potential health risks. However, some people choose to experiment with these diets to test their effects on their bodies.
Another aspect of experimental diets is the exploration of dietary theories, such as the idea that diets should be tailored to an individual's blood type. For instance, the Paleo diet, which eliminates processed foods, grains, and dairy, is said to be suitable for individuals with type O blood. Similarly, those with type A blood are recommended to avoid meat and focus on a diet of turkey, tofu, and fruit.
While experimental diets can provide individuals with a sense of agency and control over their health, it is important to approach these diets with caution. Making drastic changes to food consumption without proper guidance can lead to nutritional imbalances or other negative consequences. Therefore, it is always advisable to consult with a healthcare professional or a registered dietician before embarking on any experimental diet.
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Religious diets: diets influenced by religious beliefs, e.g. the I-tal diet followed by Rastafarians
Religious diets are diets that are influenced by an individual's religious beliefs. One example of a religious diet is the I-tal diet, which is followed by members of the Rastafari movement. The I-tal diet first appeared in Rastafari communes in Jamaica around the 1930s and has since spread throughout the African diaspora. The word "I-tal" is derived from the English word "vital", with the initial "v" replaced by "I", the unifying English pronoun favoured by Rastafarians. The emphasis on the letter "I" in Rastafari vocabulary signifies the unity of the speaker with God and nature.
The primary goal of the I-tal diet is to increase liveliness, or
There are few universal rules of I-tal living, and the expression of the diet varies widely from Rasta to Rasta. Some adherents to the I-tal diet are vegans, as they do not consider dairy to be natural for human consumption. However, many followers do view seafood as an acceptable addition to the I-tal diet, although they restrict which kinds they permit. For example, fish over a foot long are typically avoided, and all shellfish are eschewed as they are not considered kosher animals.
The strictest interpretations of the I-tal diet also avoid the consumption of rock salt, food that has been preserved by canning or drying, and even prohibit the use of metal cooking utensils. In this case, only clay and wood cooking pots, crockery, and cutlery are used. Few adherents of I-tal follow the strictest interpretation, and some Rastafarians do not adhere to them at all.
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