Which diet is right for you?

Posted on June 14, 2007 in Nutrition by byronb

There are many diets and each of them claim to be the best and of course the easiest way to lose weight, so how do you know which out of all the diets is going to be the best for you and will it work? Here we take a look at two of the most popular fad diets, The South Beach Diet and The Macrobiotic diet and take a look at the pros and cons associated with both of them.

The South Beach diet is said to a spinoff of the Atkins diet and it does start out very similar to the Atkins. This diet begins with a two-week initiation phase that severely restricts the amount of carbohydrates that you can have in your diet.

The whole point behind this theory is that you will lose around 13 pounds during this time, which is an excellent start to your diet and which will get you motivated. Following this initial period the diet then moves on to the second stage where you are encouraged to keep an eye on the carbs while introducing what are known as “good carbs” back into the diet.

The good carbs are determined by the glycemic index, this means how high the blood sugar levels rise after eating carbohydrates. Bad products are considered to be white rice, potatoes, pasta and products which contain flour such as bread, all these foods are no-no`s on this diet. Although there has been much evidence that saturated fats are bad for the body the South Beach diet doesn’t put any credence on this fact and in fact maintains that providing you stay away from the bad carbs you can have saturated fats in the diet.

The bad points to the South Beach diet is the fact that it allows saturated fats and that the diet promises a dramatic weight loss of 13 pounds during this first two weeks when in fact many experts believe that you should try to achieve a weight loss of no more than 2 pounds a week.

The Macrobiotic diet seems to stem back for thousands and years and is more than just a diet, it is also a lifestyle and since many successful diets claim that you have to change your lifestyle in order to maintain the weight loss maybe that’s not such a bad idea. The whole idea behind the diet is that it is based on a well balanced diet that includes wholesome foods that goes towards promoting good health and longevity.

Wholesome foods that are central to the macrobiotic diet include brown rice, whole grain cereals, fresh fruit and vegetables and beans, seeds and nuts. General guidelines for the diet are to include around 50% of food that is made up of whole cereals, 25% vegetables and the rest taken from a mixture of beans, soups and fruits.

Other factors that play an important role in this diet include the age of the person, the climate in which they live, the overall condition of their health and the level of their activity. The diet has a very simple approach to the foods that can and cannot be eaten, however the philosophy behind the diet such as taking the environment and weather into account could be its downfall.