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10 Reasons Why Diets are Great!

Yes, you read that right.


But, but, but...everyone knows diets are basically bad...

Well, the 'experts' aren't wrong - but they're not right either.

All those warnings are NOT stopping dieters. Consider this:


1 in 5 Americans go on a diet every year. That's 66 million people. Many of these diets are inspired by a specific diet book. This means that there are a LOT of people looking to popular diets to teach them about health and nutrition.


As a nurse, as a health coach and as a nutrition expert, I feel that we're looking at this all wrong. Instead of vilifying popular diets, we can instead recognize that they actually inspire us to seek better health. Instead of letting the fear mongering about weight gain rule the day, let’s think about popular diets from a different perspective…



10 Reasons Why Popular Diets are Great!

1) WEIGHT: Popular diets help people lose weight. Even if it’s temporary. The weight loss shows us that the diet actually does what it intended to do. Please scroll down to my final paragraph summary before you decide to roast me on this point!


2) GOAL: Popular diets bring people together with a common goal. We all recognize that it’s so much more fun – and easier – to reach a goal when you have support.


3) BODY: Popular diets teach us about our bodies in a way that an anatomy book can’t. We are all beautifully designed and beautifully unique. For example, my delicious sushi roll is someone else’s stomach ache. We need to try different foods to understand if they will work for our individual beautiful body.


4) FOOD: Popular diets often get us to try foods that we wouldn’t even know about. Like couscous, bullet-proof coffee, egg white omelets, fresh vegetable juice etc.


5) ANATOMY: Popular diets teach us about body functions. For example, learning about the gut microbiome and how it synthesizes hormones!


6) INSPIRE: Popular diets motivate people with hope. It helps them see what’s possible. This is much more interesting than reading about what food has vitamin C in it.

7) VARIETY: Popular diets are available for nearly any style of eating. From Vegan to Paleo – there’s one for everyone!


8) PLAN: Popular diets given us a starting point, a strategy and a meal plan. They have done the hard work for us, so we can just plug and play.


9) CONNECTION: Popular diets are often created for a specific demographic of people who learn from being in the same situation. For example, people with auto-immune disorders, or people fighting cancer, or people struggling with IBS, or people with diabetes... You have a medical problem? There’s a diet for that.


10) HEALTH: Popular diets give you some control over your health. With all the conflicting studies out there, these diets give you a direction and a way to take charge of the most important thing in your life – your health.


Summary

It's important to realize that EVERY way of eating has its positives and negatives. None of them are perfect. But by working with your body, new foods and a meal plan, you may discover what works for you.



Perhaps we need to shift our attitudes and move to support others who diet. The benefits listed above are powerful factors that are often helpful on a person's journey to health. Trying to warn people off of diets doesn't work. What's needed is a good integration of eating strategies using that dietary approach so that clients can maintain their success.


I studied popular diets in my '12 Diets in 12 Months' challenge during the pandemic. It was an eye opening experience. And because I'm naturally analytic, I studied the nutritional value, and developed success strategies for each one. If you are interested in working with me as a health coach, you can contact me here: https://www.patienttherapies.com/contact



And until nex

Remember,

Be Kind to Yourself!

~Rose


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