Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Diet - Essay Example

 Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Diet Introduction Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) Diet is a program that was developed by the National Cholesterol Education Program with the aim of helping individuals in controlling the health condition of hypercholesterolemia. The purpose of TLD diet is to help individuals reduce the content of fats and cholesterol within an individual by consumption of those foods that helps in the elevation of decreasing content of cholesterol along with decrease in the body bass and increase in the physical activity of an individual. TLC Diet Components The three main components of the TLD diet includes changes in the dietary patterns of an individual who is suffering from high cholesterol, management of the body fat of an individual and increasing the physical activity. The specific and the most significant components of the diet includes the consumption and maintaining of saturated fat that equal to less than 7% of the total consumed calories (Shamrocl, 2012). Furthermore the dietary program prescribes the consumption and maintenance of a total of polyunsaturated fats that are 10% of the total calories consumed by an individual. The individual should also consume monounsaturated fats that form the 20% of the total calories consumed (Shamrocl, 2012). Furthermore the program states that an individual need to consume lower than 200mg/day of cholesterol through their dietary practices. He/she should obtain 50% of his/her total calorie intake through carbohydrates and an individual should consume proteins but the protein consumption should make up the 15% of the total calories (Shamrocl, 2012). The dietary program is developed in such a manner that it helps in reduction of body weight and maintenance of weight that is regarded as healthy. The program even proposes that in order to attain the purpose of the program an individual should indulge in physical activity and exercises for at least 30 minutes and these exercises includes walking in a brisk manner almost each day of the week (Shamrocl, 2012). How Does It Work The TLC diet has been designed for the purpose of helping those individuals in attaining better lifestyle who are experiencing the issue of high cholesterol levels. It aims at reducing their cholesterol levels and helps them in avoiding fetal health issues such as cardiovascular issues. The mechanism of operation of the diet is such that the diet program helps in decreasing the consumption of saturated fat and increase the consumption of unsaturated fat as increase in saturated fat leads to increase in cholesterol. Decreasing the consumption of saturated fat ultimately leads to a decline in the cholesterol levels. According to Howard et al. a study helped in identifying that a six year diet that comprised of lower consumption of fat by 8.2% of the total energy intake helped in attaining decreased low-density lipoprotein (LDL) by 3.55 mg/dl. This depicts that by decreasing the consumption of saturated fats an individual can decrease his/her cholesterol levels (Howard et al., 2006). Advantages And Disadvantages Of TLC Diet One of the major benefits associated with TLC diet is that it is one of the simplest diet plans to follow. The diet has clearly identified the amount of saturated and unsaturated fats that should be a part of the dietary practices of an individuals and this in turn helps an individual in keeping a check on the amount of good and bad fats an individual consumes. The most significant benefit that is associated with this diet is that it helps in reduction of cholesterol that is the root cause of several deadly health issues. Decreasing the consumption of saturated fats and elevating the consumption of unsaturated fats ultimately leads to decrease in cholesterol levels and this in turn helps avoiding health issues and fighting against existing health issues. A study was conducted by Ferré et al. with the aim of identifying the impact of adherence to TLC diet on cardiovascular risk and the researchers identified that those individuals who adhere to the dietary program of TLC diet are able to reduce their risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (Ferré et al., 2010). The aim of TLC diet is not to reduce the body weight of an individual but to reduce the cholesterol level of an individual which is a major disadvantage of this dietary program. But the changes in diet along with physical activity prescribed by the diet plan help in attaining reduced weight for the dieter. The program prescribes decreasing consumption of saturated fat which is turn is quite helpful in reducing weight. A study helped in identifying that those women that adhered to a low-fat diet over a period of five years were able to decrease their calorie count from 29% to 10% and they were able to decrease their body weight by almost 6 pounds (breastcancer.org, 2015). A major issue that is associated with this diet plan is that it requires the individual to read the labels of the food and drinks that they are consuming in order to ensure that they maintain the amount of calorie intake that has been prescribed by the diet plan. Reading the labels may not be an easy task for every individual and especially for those who are not educated enough. Expert Opinion Raub et al. and fellow experts on the TLC diet conducted a study during the period of 2012 and were able to identify that there is no difference in the change in body weight of an individual if the individual follows the TLC diet plan independently of along with metformin. They state that with or without metformin, the TLC diet has the ability to help individuals decrease weight (Raub et al., 2012). Experts including Hosseinpour-Niazi et al. conducted a study in which they were identified that if an individual consumed and follows a legume-based TLC diet they are able to decrease the level of LDL cholesterol (Hosseinpour-Niazi et al., 2014). Both these experts and their researches state that TLC diet is quite helpful in managing weight as well as cholesterol and are quite helpful in averting various serious health conditions. These health conditions include cardiovascular diseases as well as diabetes. References Ferré, R., Plana, N., Aragonès, G., Girona, J., Heras, M., Coll, B., . . . Masana, L. (2010). Effects of therapeutic lifestyle changes on peripheral artery tonometry in patients with abdominal obesity. Nutrition Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, 22(2), 95 - 102. doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2010.04.008 Hosseinpour-Niazi, S., Mirmiran, P., Hedayati, M., & Azizi, F. (October 29, 2014). Substitution of red meat with legumes in the therapeutic lifestyle change diet based on dietary advice improves cardiometabolic risk factors in overweight type 2 diabetes patients: a cross-over randomized clinical trial. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Howard, B. V., Horn, L. V., Hsia, J., Manson, J. E., Stefanick, M. L., Wassertheil-Smoller, S., . . . Kotchen, J. M. (2006). Low-fat dietary pattern and risk of cardiovascular disease: the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial. Obstetrical & Gynecological Survey, 295(6), 655 - 666. doi:10.1097/01.ogx.0000224659.41638.7d Low-Fat Diet and Weight Loss Improves Survival in Some Women. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2, 2015, from http://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/diet-weight-loss-improves-survival-for-some Raub, R. M., & Goldberg, S. J. (January 01, 2012). Assessment of Metformin as an Additional Treatment to Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes in Pediatric Patients with Metabolic Syndrome. Cholesterol, 2012, 3, 1-5. Shamrocl, E. (2012, September 29). TLC diets || TLC diet |. Retrieved from http://tlcdiet.org/ Read More