Remember the hopeful sigh’s that were found leaving your lips every time the camera panned onto the celebrities in attendance at the Oscars or our very own Filmfare!
While Oscar winner Sandra Bullock took your breath away in a fitting silver colored gown, Bipasha Basu got your heart racing in a sleek black number and just as the camera panned on Diya Mirza who was looking ethereal in her white dressing gown you wished for the umpteenth time that ‘why oh why don’t I have a body like that’?
Isn’t it always like this, you see good looking people on the TV and you wish that you had their amazing bodies? And then suddenly you decide to go on a diet to gain their figure because you read somewhere that Jennifer Aniston follows the Zone diet and Kareena Kapoor follows the Vedic diet!
But with so many diets doing the rounds, you are bound to be so confused that you will eventually end up choosing the wrong variety of diet for yourself! To help you in your endeavor of gaining a celebrity like body and choosing from the clutter of diets present, here a few popular diets along with their pros and cons:
Atkins Diet:
The grand daddy of diets that introduced the world to the ‘low-carb craze’, Atkins diet was named after its founder, Dr. Robert Atkins. Founded in 1972, Atkins diet is based on the belief that overweight people consume too many carbohydrates and that our body’s first burn the carbs, followed by the stored fat for gaining energy. The diet suggests reducing the carbohydrates intake to switch the body’s metabolism to burning the fat stored in one’s body instead of the carbohydrates, this is known as ‘ketosis’- where in the body begins burning its own fat!
Whenever we consume a carbohydrate rich diet, the sugars from the carbohydrate enter the bloodstream. To prevent the blood sugar from becoming high, the body produces insulin; this insulin converts the sugar into glycogen to be stored in our liver and muscles. But soon these stores also get filled and that is when the insulin begins to convert the excess sugar into fat!
Atkins recommends eating of the pure protein and fats while severely reducing the intake of carbohydrates – around 20 gms per day! However, detractors point out that Atkins Diet promotes diseases of the heart, stroke and cancer mainly due to its focus on consuming high level of fats and proteins, plus it is medically proven that the body needs atleast 150 gms of carbohydrates in a day to function normally.
South Beach Diet:
Discovered and propagated by Arthur Agatston, MD. The diet concentrates on the reduction of the bad carbs and inclusion of good carbs in one’s diet. South Beach Diet promotes consumption of low sugar carbs, which have a low glycemic index; in layman’s terms the diet promotes consumption of carbohydrates that don’t cause your blood sugar to rise or fall dramatically unlike the Atkins diet. Similarly the South beach diet also promotes the intake of proteins and fat, but unlike Atkins, it bans the unhealthy fats and concentrates on consuming only good fats. These important yet miniscule changes ensure that the health risks of the diet such as heart disease, stroke and cancer are cut down considerably.
South Beach Diet works in three phases, with the first stage lasting for 14 days, it is known as the ‘induction period’. The first phase seeks to cut down all your high sugar carbohydrate sources such as bread, rice, potato and even fruit! This ban is also extended to alcohol, during the ‘induction period’. The second stage concentrates on the ‘re-introduction’ of some of the banned carbs like fruits and bread, in the individual’s diet. This stage goes on till the desired weight loss is achieved. The third and the last stage is known as the ‘Diet for Life’ stage, wherein foods are to be taken in normal yet controlled proportions, to maintain the weight achieved by the diet.
Mediterranean Diet:-
A heart healthy diet, the Mediterranean diet encourages consumption of foods that are aimed at a healthy balanced diet! What more, the diet allows you to have meat and dairy products along with alcohol too, albeit in moderation.
The Mediterranean diet is based on the Greek’s way of life, the Greeks were an active lot and thus the diet encourages a lot of exercise or activity along with eating a healthy balanced diet. The diet consists of food items which provide amazing health benefits for your heart and overall benefits such as the use of Olive or Canola Oil for cooking or as salad dressing and these oils contain monounsaturated fats or ‘good’ fats which are known to reduce one’s LDL cholesterol levels. Consumption of red wine in moderate levels with meals is encouraged; red wine when had in moderation is known to provide immense health benefits.
Further, the Mediterranean diet encourages snacking on nuts such as walnuts, almonds, hazel nuts and pecans which are low in saturated fats and harmful for the heart. The diet encourages the consumption of grains, whole grains which contain fewer unhealthy Trans’ fat i.e you can have your bread but without the accompanying butter, mayo or margarine. Fish consumption is also encouraged at least once a week to gain the necessary Omega-3 fatty acids which lower the levels of triglycerides, thereby promoting a healthy heart. Herbs and spices are suggested as alternatives to salt for seasoning purposes.
Vedic Diet:
Finally a diet tailor made for us Indians! The Vedic diet consists primarily of the consumption of Vedic foods. The Vedic diet stresses on the consumption of the right foods, where in 60-70% of it is raw. The foods are preferred to be eaten raw, as there is a strong belief that cooking destroys the nutritional value of the food, thereby rendering it almost useless, except for the fiber it provides.
Vedic diets are based on the three primary Doshas that affect our body namely the Vatta Dosha- movement, Pitta Dosha- metabolism and Kapha Dosha- growth. The diet suggests a variety of foods for all 3 types of Dosha that should be consumed within a specific set of timings or ‘kaal’ to balance out the Doshas of the body and maintain a healthy body with appropriate body weight.
So, now that you have the low-down on few of the most popular types of diet, we are sure that you have already decided on what diet you would like to try out. But do remember that be it any diet, it must be complemented by an active lifestyle and should never starve you for food!
