Diets for 2015
Eating plans used to be all about weight-loss, denial and cabbage. These days we should consume for life. So don’t be a grumpy sausage, says Fiona Adams, embrace a new way of eating
When the apostle Paul told the Corinthians to flee from sexual immorality, saying “Do you not know that your body is a temple…?”, it’s highly unlikely that he envisaged he would be misquoted by diet gurus down the centuries.
But here we are, 2000 years later, and we are still locked in an infernal battle with our willpower over what’s good for us. If you are fed up with crash-dieting for special events – parties, summer holidays, bets with your loved ones that you can still get into your jeans from 1994 – then you might want to try a lifestyle change instead and embrace one of the new ways of eating.
By their very nature they often exclude pasta, pizza and chips (the latter I find particularly upsetting), but on the upside many include cheese and chocolate! So go ahead, eat for life.
Paleo diet
This is known as the caveman diet and you are meant to consume only foods that can be hunted or fished (tricky if you’re not living in the wilds of Scotland), as well as foods that can be gathered, like fruit, nuts and berries. As its name suggests, it is supposed to replicate the eating habits of the hunter-gatherers of yore. Anything processed and the products of global farming, such as grains, dairy, refined sugar, salt and potatoes, are out. It was the most searched for diet on Google in 2013 and counts pop sensation Miley Cyrus among its devotees. Even Ocado launched an online paleo diet aisle last year.
Clean-eating concept
This has been popularised in the US where clean-eating guru Tosca Reno has urged devotees to ditch their ‘dirty’ food to help them lose weight and get healthy. It’s similar to the paleo diet in that it eschews refined and processed foods, items that contain artificial ingredients and crops grown using chemical fertilisers or pesticides. So, you’d have to give up white flour, sugar and alcohol for a start.
However, instead you’d be fuelling up with whole, natural, nutrient-rich foods that are more seasonal, locally produced and often organic. It will also make you think about animal welfare and the impact of global farming. Food for body and mind.
Alkaline diet
It seems this lifestyle has the greatest number of celebrity fans, including those well-known twiglets Gwyneth Paltrow and Victoria Beckham. It is based on the idea that modern diets cause our bodies to produce too much acid and that, in excess, this is converted by the body into fat. The alkaline diet aims to keep the body’s pH between 7.35 and 7.45. Followers often adopt an 80/20 rule, based on 80% fruit and veg with 20% grains and protein, and it’s thought the diet can help improve conditions such as arthritis and osteoporosis. Apparently it stems from research by the French biologist Claude Bernard, who discovered that changing the diet of rabbits from herbivore to carnivore turned their urine from alkaline to acid. Who’d have thought it?
Wheat-free
I have been following a mainly wheat-free, low-carb diet since June last year. When I tell friends and family I’ve given up bread, pasta and potatoes, they usually react with horror and tell me that, quite frankly, life can’t be worth living. Despite the occasional mad craving for a cupcake or bag of chips, however, it has been surprisingly easy to live with; I’ve lost 10 pounds and feel really healthy.
The regime is the brainchild of cardiologist Dr William Davis and aims to eliminate “addictive” wheat and gluten from our diets while managing the amount of sugar and carbs we ingest. The best thing about it is that I can eat as much cheese and dark chocolate as I like. Result.
High-fat diet
There has been much in the press recently about how we should ditch the skinny products to become, well, skinnier. It now seems that fat is no longer the bad guy; it is an excellent source of energy (better than sugar and carbs) and recent research in the US has also indicated that cutting back on high-fat products, such as butter and cream, can have an adverse effect on cardiovascular health.
Consumption of full fats (and alternative fats, like coconut oil) is even thought to slow down the ageing process and can help postpone conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Hurrah! Whipped lardo here I come.
As ever, ‘balance and moderation’ should be your mantra with new ways of eating. If you are concerned about your health or have a diagnosed medical condition, see your doctor before drastically changing your diet
