words Al Woods
Dieting has been a weight-loss buzzword for decades, but there is a misconception about what it really means. Many people often believe dieting equates to cutting certain foods out of your life and following a strict meal plan.
But the truth is, your diet is simply all the food you eat in an average day. As people start making more conscious decisions about the food they eat—by adopting healthier diets—it can change the future of old-fashioned “dieting” as a whole.
More people know the dangers of fad diets
Most people think “a diet” is a temporary change to the food they eat made in order to lose weight. More often than not, people on diets will return to their original eating habits afterwards.
This kind of crash dieting—losing weight as quickly as possible—doesn’t work. It can actually do more harm than good. Some of the more popular crash diets include a juice diet, the cabbage soup diet, and the grapefruit diet. All of these often leave you feeling hungry, and not getting the right nutrients you need to be healthy. Cutting out certain foods, such as carbohydrates, or simply eating the same thing for every meal as with the cabbage soup diet, will inevitably have this effect. The initial weight loss you see from a crash diet like this is only temporary, and you will gain weight once the diet is over. Not eating enough can also slow down your metabolism, meaning you will gain weight whenever you do decide to eat, which defeats the purpose for many people who decide to crash diet.
A number of articles explain the risks of crash dieting, and it now seems that more people are taking care to think more carefully about the food they eat. This trend is most noticeable among millennials, who seem to pay more attention about healthy eating than previous generations. Younger consumers are more willing to put their well-being first, and are even prepared to pay more for healthier options.
Plant-based foods helping people move towards balanced lifestyles
Following the release of several food documentaries, including What The Health, many people are taking advantage of the benefits of plant-based future food products to move towards a more balanced diet.
Contrary to popular misconception, it is possible to have a balanced vegan diet, with additional benefits including weight management, lower cholesterol, better digestion, and less of an environmental impact.
As a result, the number of vegetarian and vegan-friendly foods available in shops and restaurants has also increased. From supermarkets offering their own free-from ranges, to high-street restaurants expanding their menus, plant-based meals are more readily available than ever before.
The nutritional value of a balanced diet is not lost on some brands; UK-based brand Huel for example prides itself on offering “nutritionally complete” meals. In fact the idea for the brand came from the desire to create a perfectly balanced, complete meal that can be prepared in less than two minutes. This was achieved by producing powdered food, and since then the brand has also expanded to granola and snack bars.
All Huel products are 100% vegan and are testament to how incorporating more plant-based foods into your diet can lead to a more balanced, nutritionally complete lifestyle.
Technology is helping to shape diets and health trends
Today, there are thousands of apps focused on health and nutrition. Many of these educate and promote users on how to follow a balanced diet, and can work to encourage them to follow a nutritional meal plan.
MyFitnessPal for example asks users to log what they eat and offers nutritional advice and information throughout the day. It’s been found that keeping a food diary can encourage healthier eating, as it makes you accountable for what you eat, and discourages mindless snacking on unhealthy foods.
Crash dieting is not the healthiest option for weight loss, or even to be fitter and healthier as a person. Instead, society is starting to learn that simply opting for a more balanced diet in everyday life can be massively beneficial to your health. This preference, in turn, is being mirrored in the future of food.
