Diet

Diet is an interesting concept. The definition of diet is simply the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats. So really anything we eat is our diet. However, these days diet has come to refer to a restricted regiment of food and has taken on many shapes; The Atkins Diet, The South Beach Diet, and most recently in the media, The Paleo Diet (among many). If you are trying to lose weight it gets confusing trying to figure out which diet works for you.

I have been thinking a lot about this, as my weight loss has plateaued of late. I try to just eat right and watch my portions but that can be hard, especially when you have kids and have to have snacks around the house. So the idea of going on a specific diet to help aid my weight loss is rather appealing. You may remember my post about the Master Cleanse, I certainly will never forget the experience! So I am really trying to look at all angles before picking a diet, if any at all.

The first one I thought about was the Atkins Diet. I know someone on it who loves it and is losing weight like crazy and it is a really good fit for her. Although I really like the sound of the results, I love carbohydrates. And honestly I think it would be really hard for me to give up all carbohydrates, I feel like I would just be setting myself up for failure. I want a diet that doesn't make me feel like I am missing out on things.

Then I heard about the Paleo Diet and I did some research into it. Besides it being very similar to the Atkins Diet, it was a little intriguing. I read a lot of articles about it and came to the same conclusions as I did about the Atkins Diet. On top of grains and beans, you also can't eat corn. Or peas. Or potatoes. But then there are some who say that you can eat potatoes.

Looking at these two diets made me think about the sustainability of them. Can we eat that much meat as a global community and sustain it? Do we need to eat that much meat? Vegetarians don't think we do, but the Paleo Diet supporters say that we aren't that physiologically different from our ancient caveman ancestors and meat was the staple of their diet. Both tout the life extending benefits of their diets but I think the key lies somewhere in the middle.

Is a diet of meat healthy? Well probably not with the meat you are thinking. Cavemen ate very lean, grass fed meat, not grain fed hormone addled animals. So while our ancient ancestors may have lived a long life with their meaty diet, the fatty meat we have available to us leads to all sorts of health issues. Not to mention do we need that much meat? Sure our ancestors did, they were hunting ALL day, they were constantly moving. Us? Not so much. So do our sedentary lifestyles warrant that much protein? I wouldn't think so. But I am no nutritionist.

Then there is the issue of sustainability. Is it feasible for this many people to eat that much meat? I will spare you my bad math and instead point you a statistic and a very interesting article. Both lead me to rethink my meat consumption. As it is I try to eat local beef and pork and since I can't find local chicken I try to eat organic.

After all this research and reading I have decided that for now the course of action for me to just eat right and watch my portions. Limit meat and cheese and focus on whole grains.