Mixing Diet Fads Just Might Work for Most People - Essay Example

"Mixing Diet Fads Just Might Work for Most People" is a good example of a paper on food and nutrition. 
The constant rise in American weight problems ranging from high cholesterol to obesity have made dieticians and medical practitioners take a second look at the dietary habits of our society. The fear of an ever-increasing problem in the areas of cancer and heart disease prevention have raised 2 schools of thought on the matter. These days, it is either you are on the Atkins diet or High-Calorie diet. The question is, which of the two diets actually work?

            Dr. Robert Atkins created the Atkins diet as part of a low- carbohydrate meal plan that advocates the belief that the physiological system of the human body can be rewired in order to burn the stored body fat as energy through a process known as ketosis. This is the lowering of the sugar existing in the body even after a meal and can benefit Diabetic patients who need a metabolic advantage over the years. The High-Calorie diet, on the other hand, believes that weight loss can only be achieved by packing on the carbohydrates and decreasing calorie intake. The problem with this diet is that it increases the sugar quota in our system, thus making it harder for the body to digest the food. The longer it takes our system to burn the food, the longer it stays within our system and begins to affect other parts of our metabolism. It is within these 2 beliefs that the diet argument begins to take shape.

            One has to remember the old saying that “anything in excess is bad for you”. Too much fat in the diet, especially unregulated. Artery clogging fats such as lard and trans fats can give you a heart attack. But then again, a high carbohydrate diet can lead to obesity which also encourages heart attacks and diabetes in some people. Therefore, both diets have a pitfall that can end your life in an instant. However, these scenarios all happen because the schools of diet thought are being forced to work against each other rather than together.

            Dr. Atkins had a point when he surmised that fats are good for everyone. However, only certain fat types can actually provide a health benefit to our diets. Take for example the case of the people living in the Mediterranean. The fat in their diet comes mostly from Olive Oil and the people living in that area do not have any incidence of high cholesterol. The Japanese living on the Okinawa side consume large amounts of Omega 3 from their fish-based diets but avoid saturated fats, hens, they have no heart-related problems. Closer to home, the Eskimos also have low incidences of arthritis and heart disease even though they live on an Omega 3 heavy diet (Cohen, Jay M.D. Low-Fat Diets Don't Work? Don't Believe It!).

            Socially speaking, carbohydrates have always been a part of human life as a staple food. The problem is that unlike proteins and fats, it takes our body days to burn carbohydrates in our system, thus increasing the incidence of weight gain. It also decreases our energy levels because of the amount of energy that our system has to redirect towards burning the food that we eat. Carbohydrates make people sluggish because of the increased sugar intake which, for people with slow metabolisms could spell the difference between weight loss and becoming a diabetic or candidate for heart disease (Filler, Frank 10 Reasons Why Low Carb Diets Don't Work).

            Take a closer look at the two schools of diet. Each diet has its own potential health benefits and drawbacks. The secret to the correct weight loss program must, therefore, be a cross of all that is good between the two diets. Take the good fat advice from Dr. Atkins and the high complex carbohydrates for back up from the high carb diets and a healthy, balanced diet should be somewhere in between. That is because according to Dr. Jay Cohen (Low-Fat Diets Don't Work? Don't Believe It!)

            A low-fat, high-quality diet does not mean going crazy on carbohydrates.  It does not mean you can eat unlimited amounts of "low-fat" foods filled with sugars and calories. It does not mean bread and pastries made from refined white flour or loaded with sugar. Bad carbohydrates are just as bad as bad fats. You must select your carbohydrates just as carefully as you select fats.

            Keeping Dr. Cohen's advice in mind as we approach a mealtime will not only mean a more satisfying set of food on the plate, it also means we will walk away from the meal table a much healthier person.