Health

The diets to avoid in 2015

There’s no such thing as a healthy quick fix when it comes to dieting and now the British Diatetic Association have pinpointed the fad diets to steer clear of in 2015.

Making the list this year is everything from the urine therapy diet to the Paleo diet and Julie Gilbert, a Spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia, agrees with the findings.

“They’ve identified these diets that people are actually following that are not going to give any long term weight loss results that people are after. In some cases some of these are very risky to do,” she said.

10 foods you should avoid and what to eat instead

“I think the urine diet and the clay diet are particularly dangerous, you should not even attempt those or even variations of them, they are just ridiculous.

“The fact is, they are not based on any scientific research or evidence.”

Here are the top five diets to steer clear of:

Urine therapy

This diet, also known as urotherapy, involves drinking your own urine for medical wellbeing purposes. While some say the urea has cancer fighting benefits, the BDA says there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support this. They also say there are no weight loss benefits at all.

The Paleo diet

This diet, which has become popular recently, allows you to eat only foods presumed to be available to Neanderthals in the prehistoric era, cutting out food groups like dairy products, grains, sugar, legumes, processed oils, salt, alcohol or coffee. While a diet with less salt and processed foods is a good idea, this diet cuts out too many food groups. You should not cut out any food groups, unless it is for medical reasons. Cutting out certain food groups can cause nutrition deficiencies.

The sugar free diet

This involves cutting out all types of sugar, and often carbohydrates, from your diet. Cutting out sugar from your diet is almost impossible and means you need to cut out foods like vegetables, fruit, dairy products and nuts. This isn’t exactly a well-balanced diet.

VB6 Diet

Also known as the vegan before 6pm diet or the “Chegan” diet gets to you follow a vegan eating plan before 6pm. After that, nothing is off limits. While a vegan diet encourages the consumption of more fruit and veg which is good, it doesn’t necessarily translate to a healthy diet. The risk is being given the opportunity to eat unhealthy foods after 6pm. Realistically, eating foods at particular times of day doesn’t affect your diet.

The Clay Cleanse diet

This diet involves eating a spoonful of clay each day to remove toxins from the body, helping you to detox and stay in shape.

Consuming clay can be very dangerous for your health. The Food Standards agency issued a warning about consuming clay after high levels of lead and arsenic were discovered in products.

How to lose weight the healthy way

If you are planning on shedding some weight in the New Year Julie suggests trying a healthy eating program that is supported by science.

“I think you need to make sure the diet or weight loss program or diet product you are planning to use is backed with some scientific research,” Julie says.

“Please go and consult a dietician, they really will be able to show you how to get the best results probably faster than all of these fad diets and will also be able to show you how to keep that weight off which is the most important part.”

The foods that really help you lose weight

If you choose to lose weight on your own, Julie suggests thinking clearly about what the diet is asking you to do.

“If it is a diet that tells you to exclude a specific food group, steer clear of it. The reason I say that is because there is no supporting evidence that says excluding a food would give you better health results, actually the reverse would happen,” she says.

“People are still following all of these fads and obesity are still climbing at an alarming rate. We need to let go of that obsession we have of that quick fix.”

Julie suggests monitoring your progress by weighing yourself and recording what you eat. And while there are a lot of diets that are bad for you, there are a few that are healthy and can work.

“There are a few good diets for people who want to do it on their own. The Mediterranean diet is great, the low Gi diet is also really good and the dash diet is good for people with high blood pressure. These are three really good scientifically based diets which are great. “

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