Don't Diet in 2019 - Reason #13: No, Virginia, you cannot be healthy eating only bacon, butter, and cheese
The all-bacon-and-butter-diet will not meet your nutritional needs…and look at these cute little faces! Maybe we should eat LESS bacon.
The nutritional promises of most diets are about as real as Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny.
I chuckle a bit every time I hear someone say: “Oh yes, I had a very healthy “keto” lunch…I ate steak covered in an Alfredo-bacon sauce with a side of butter and extra bacon.”
There are a thousand ways to do diets the wrong way. Many people simply misinterpret diets or take “the rules” totally out of context. Though I’m clearly not a fan of the keto diet, when done properly and under a doctor’s supervision, it can be helpful for certain people in very specific situations.
But the majority of people doing this kind of fad diet are doing it wrong and are headed for dietary disaster. I frequently use keto as an example for two reasons:
It’s so incredibly restrictive. I have yet to meet more than one or two people who have maintained the diet for longer than 6 months, and….
Nearly every woman I know who has tried it experienced negative side effects including: GI issues, hormonal imbalance, carb and sugar binges, plateau in weight loss and inability to lose weight, and subsequent weight regain.
These exceptionally restrictive fad diets look great on paper, but rarely deliver in practice. And there’s too much room for error and conflicting information which can make these types of diets unhealthy for us long term.
What you should do instead…
Anti-Diet Wisdom: Common sense should prevail. Any researcher, given enough money, can make the bacon and butter diet seem healthy. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
First and foremost, paying attention to how foods make you feel is of paramount importance. It’s the only way you’ll ever determine what foods are truly best for you. Beyond that you can’t go wrong with a well-rounded diet full of colorful vegetables, fruits, unprocessed starches and even — gasp! — grains, and a moderate consumption of healthy proteins and whole-food fats is truly your best ticket to better health and a normalized weight.
Blog Author: Kelly Bailey, IIN certified holistic nutrition coach, and NPTI certified personal trainer
Learn more about the author here.