List of Diets
Well-known nutritional diets:
Vegan diet
A vegan is a person who avoids the ingestion or use
of animal products. An animal product in this context refers
to the body parts of an animal or any substance derived from
an animal.
Many vegans avoid the use of all animal products, including,
for example, leather shoes, cosmetics, toiletries, and household
cleaners containing animal products, as well as products containing
ingredients that have been tested on animals. Some vegans
avoid using animals as food, but may nevertheless wear clothes
made of materials derived from animals. These vegans are called
"dietary vegans."
The term vegan is also used as an adjective to describe the
philosophy and practice of respect for non-human animals,
and the products that avoid their use.
Vegetarian diet
Vegetarianism is a dietary practice characterized
by the exclusion of all body parts of any animal and products
derived from animal carcasses (such as lard, tallow, gelatin,
and cochineal), from one's diet. The most common definition
of vegetarianism, however, accepts the inclusion of animal-based
products such as honey, milk and other dairy products as well
as eggs. This is more precisely called ovo-lacto vegetarianism.
Some vegetarians also choose to refrain from wearing animal-produced
items, including wool, leather, silk, feathers/down, and fur.
Vegetarianism has been common in Hindu and Buddhist countries
such as India for thousands of years as a cultural and religious
practice, but in the 20th century it became increasingly popular
in Western countries as a result of ethical, health, environmental
and even geopolitical concerns.
Warrior Diet
The Warrior Diet created by Ori Hofmekler is a controversial
diet based on a daily feeding cycle of "undereating"
during the day and "overeating" at night. The "Undereating
Phase" supposedly maximizes the Sympathetic Nervous System's
(SNS) fight or flight reaction to stress, thereby promoting
alertness resulting in energy generation and ultimately fat
burning.
Basically it places emphasis on evening meals and shedding
the "calorie counting" unlike other diets and returning
to the old warrior diets where one huge meal was likely the
order of the day. Moreover it intends to reduce fat while
maintaining or improving muscle tone. Short, intense strength
and aerobic exercises are also part of the "warrior training,"
along with pre-and post-workout meals.
Weight Watchers: The diet of the American company.
Weight Watchers (NYSE: WTW), founded in the 1960s
by Jean Nidetch, is a company offering various dieting products
and services to assist weight loss. It started as a discussion
group for how to best lose weight. It now operates in about
30 countries around the world, generally under the name "Weight
Watchers" translated into the local language. Its most
prominent celebrity endorser is Sarah, Duchess of York.
Varying on location, Weight Watchers generally offers two
distinct programs:
- The POINTS program
- The Core program
The programs are supplemented by optional support groups
which meet regularly and provide ground assistance to those
trying to meet weight-loss goals.
In the UK, Weight Watchers advertises under the slogan "where
no food is a sin" in reference to its chief competitor
Slimming World's system of giving some food "sin"
values.
From 1978 until 1999, the Weight Watchers company was owned
by the H. J. Heinz Company, which continues to produce packaged
foods bearing the Weight Watchers brand name. Weight Watchers
was acquired in a leveraged buyout in 1999 and went public
in 2001.
Zone diet
The Zone diet is a diet popularized in books by Barry
Sears. It advocates "hormonal thinking" instead
of caloric thinking as an approach to weight loss.
"The Zone" is Sears's term for proper hormone balance.
When insulin levels are neither too high nor too low, the
human body uses stored fat for energy, causing weight loss.
The diet centers around a "40:30:30" ratio of calories
obtained daily from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, respectively.
The formula is controversial, but studies over the past several
years (including non-scientific study by Scientific American
Frontiers) have shown it to produce rapid weight loss.
Hormonal paradoxes
Sears emphasizes a hormonal paradox which "low-fat"
advocates were unaware of, namely that low-fat carbohydrates
increase the production of the hormone insulin, causing the
body to store more fat. He points to the cattle ranching practice
of fattening livestock efficiently by feeding them lots of
low-fat grain. He and others have noted the irony that human
diets in the West for the last twenty years have been full
of low-fat carbohydrates, yet people are more obese —
Sears claims as a result.
In addition to this, Sears describes fat consumption as essential
for "burning" fat. Monounsaturated fats in a meal
contribute to a feeling of fullness and modulate the rate
at which carbohydrates are absorbed into the bloodstream.
Low-fat diets actually stimulate fat storage, according to
Sears, by creating high levels of insulin in the blood.
The "low-carb craze"
Low-carbohydrate diets like the Atkins diet are rapidly becoming
popular throughout the United States, but Sears claims that
they miss the point. According to him, they ignore the importance
of hormonal balance, as well as the influence of dietary balance
on digestion and hormone production.
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