Which Diet is Best?

People eat because they have to; to obtain energy to carry out everyday activities
and for survival. Other than water and sleep, food is one of the most important
factors in order to keep someone from starving to death (Avena, 2015). Dieting is the
main outcome of disappointment from what the body looks like and also how people
mentally feel about their body. Dieting is more common in women than in men, but in
recent years the amount of males who diet or who are not happy about their bodies
is slowly increasing (Ogden, 2011).
In the new global economy, there has been numerous amounts of diets that are
widely used. A diet consists of a food plan, ideally of healthy food choices. Diets
range from low carb to low fat diets, high protein, Mediterranean, liquid, food
supplements and point systems. Many only focus on short term results and often
cause people to put weight straight back on (NHS, 2014). Others have been greatly
successful through the time that they have ran for, to diets such as weightwatchers
even having their own brand of food readily available for the public.
The body needs vital nutrients to function, Macronutrients; carbohydrates, fats and
protein and micronutrients; vitamins and minerals (Webb, 2012). Due to diseases,
allergies or absence of knowledge many people can often lack the nutrients that their
body needs. Such disease can be diabetes, lactose intolerance, being a vegetarian
or having psychological disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, which can stop you
from eating altogether or purging (Insel et al., 2014). There has also been trends in
diets that are come and go from year to year all that depend on the media. The
overall quality of the diet is related to the risk of disease more so than what nutrients
it actually contains suggests Kant (1996).

Throughout this writing there will be reference to the many fad diets that exist, to
nutritional requirements and diets for diseases. There is a considerable amount of
literature that has been published on the areas of diets and its affects it can have on
underlying diseases like diabetes or osteoporosis. How diets are not just down to
pure laziness but can be a cause of psychological disorders, but also how dieting
can help or hinder peoples lives.
Theoretically every diet should be balanced and consist of protein, carbohydrates,
fats, vitamins and minerals. Without these essential components there is a high risk
of becoming seriously ill or start to develop diseases. Even if certain macro or
micronutrients are taken in excess there is a high risk of damaging the metabolic
system (Kalonji et al., 2015). Kalonji et al.,(2015) also estimates from the research
findings that the main two groups of people who will and can generally lack in these
nutrients are children and the elderly. Children are certainly less likely to have a high
intake of these components because of their fussiness when it comes to eating.
Ross (2012) proposes that dieting will leave people in worse shape and health than
before, but has found a key nutrient taken in pill form to help supress cravings and
mood swings. It concluded of amino acids, a pure protein pill helped majorly in their
food addiction programmes. Devkota (2011) also believes that a high protein diet can
help aid weight loss because of its nature in hunger supressing. Although there is
little research, protein can cause weight loss and fat loss. Eisenstein (2002)
concludes from apparent data, excessive consumption of protein can actually lead to
calcium loss and start to cause reduction in bone density. In addition to these
findings high protein diets should consist of both animal and vegetable protein as
animal protein can have negative side effects (Calvez et al., 2011).

Meat eaters generally have a higher risk of becoming over weight than the
vegetarian and vegan population. However, the results from Clarys et al., (2014)
mentions that vegetarians have a higher population of being underweight, whereas
meat eaters had little prevalence of an underweight population. Rajaram & Sabt
(2000) agrees that being a vegetarian also has many health benefits, if followed
correctly. The essential nutrients that are taken in from being a vegetarian can help
prevent the occurrence of Cardiovascular diseases, Cancer and mortality. Key et al.,
(2009) agrees to this statement to an extent, in the study of mortality rates on meateaters vs non meat eaters the difference in mortality rate was almost microscopic. A
reason why Key et al., concluded this was due to the small research that was
performed, and on a wider scale the differences between meat vs non meat-eaters
would have larger death rates.
Trichopoulou et al., (1995) suggests that the Mediterranean diet has been used for
life longevity in middle aged, to the elderly population over the nutrients the diet
contains. It is called the Mediterranean diet because of where the types of grains,
olive oils and fish originates from the olive growing areas. Trichopoulou & Lagiou
(1997) have also suggested that it has major benefits for health, more so for the
reduced risk of developing Cardiovascular diseases. This diet has not necessarily
been made up, but has been a way of life and culture in the Mediterranean. The
population there have lived full healthy lives with 25% lower risk of diseases so now
in more so recent years it has involved into a diet used by many (Trichopoulou et al.,
2003)
A high fibre diet has been proven to be most effective. If sugars and starches are
taken in the rawest fibre rich form, there will be a lower level of energy intake but
also cause the energy to be passed out by faecal matter over exercise. Fibre causes

the stomach and mind to feel satisfied and full on fewer calories (Smith, 1993).
Trudeau et al., (1998) concludes that having a higher intake of fruit and vegetables,
which also includes high levels of fibre has been seen to have a positive effect on
intrinsic motivation, to feel better about themselves.
Extreme dieting and lack of knowledge on what it does to the body can have serious
effects on mental health, and can later develop obesity or eating disorders.
Neumark-Sztainer (2006) has found within studies that adolescent girls who diet at
moderate level, have an increased risk to binge eat later on in life. It was also
concluded that adolescents that had high levels of dieting were nearly 20 times more
likely to have an eating disorder up to 4 years post dieting. Eating disorders can
cause devastating effects to health, physical image and much more. Treatment is
advised for many to help regain strength both mentally and physically as they have
tortured and deprived their bodies to such an extent causing death in extreme cases
and early onset of osteoporosis in later life. Up to 1 and a half million people in the
UK are affected by eating disorders (NHS, 2014).
Many people can become addicted over time to eating or addicted to avoiding food
and starving themselves, and once this becomes apparent it is very difficult to stop
the addiction without help and support from officiated psychologists. Treatment can
also be a very long process (Nicholls & Grindrod, 2008). Anorexia and other eating
disorders are 4 times more likely to occur if they are substance abusers and 2 times
as likely if chronic dieters (Hudson et al., 2007).
The NHS has weight management referral schemes which have used the
commercial weight loss programmes such as Weightwatchers. Not only does the UK
benefit from such weight management programmes but Weightwatchers has been

widely successful in over 10 different countries (Weightwatchers International, 2015).

Ahern et al., (2011) claims that from these referral schemes, a 3 rd of patients which
have attended all 12 sessions have lost less than around 5% of their starting body
weight. This has some clinical health benefits but over a very long period of time
there hasnt been a large change in patients weight loss. This may mean the NHS
are not realistically benefitting in funding these groups. Within Lowe et al., (2008)
study concluded that less than 27% of successful weightwatcher completers had
maintained and remained below their goal weight 1 to 5 years after. This is a very
low percentage out of the 699 successful life timers of weightwatchers that were
included in this trial.
Within weightwatchers they have point systems, this means that every food that is
consumed has so many points. Each participant only has a specific amount of points
they can reach until they are not allowed to eat any more, this system still allows
members to treat themselves to certain treats such as chocolate bars or crisps in the
weightwatchers range. Madigan et al., (2014) found within their research that weight
watchers was affective but there was little evidence showing similar weight
management programmes to have as an effective result. Overtime it was concluded
that slimming world was not as great and successful as weightwatchers but NHS
programmes where on par. Although over time, patients lost more weight with
slimming world but there was a lack of results to conclude final findings.
A low carbohydrate diet such as the Atkins diet has been proven to cause greater
weight loss than a low fat diet and also reduce the levels of fatty acids that come
from dietary fat found in dairy and oils, Triglyceride (Samaha et al., 2003, Yancy et
al., 2004). There have been modifications to the Atkins diet as in the beginning there
was a shorter list of food dieters were allowed to eat, now there is a much greater

range of foods and also the ways in which they can be prepared. There are a
number of stages in order to start the diet correctly, it recommends avoiding fruit,
grains and starchy vegetables (Atkins, 2013). Not only does this diet help with weight
loss but it is also prescribed to children and adults who have Epilepsy. This is the
Modified Atkins Diet (MAD), it restricts and controlls the amount of carbohydrates
allowed, high fat foods are essential unlike the normal Atkins diet that again restricts
the amount you can eat. Weight loss is not the main outcome of the MAD (Kossoff et
al., 2013).
Low carbohydrate diets can be high in fat as it needs something to burn off, having
high fats included in the diet can increase the risk of heart attacks and raised
cholesterol. The type of fat should be controlled and be unsaturated to stop this risk
(NHS, 2014).
There have been many changes over the years in the trends of nutrients the body
needs to survive. These range from fresh citric fruit and vegetables to cure scurvy in
the eighteenth century, to the late nineteenth century needing Vitamin B1 to cure
Beriberi (Willet, 2012). Ancestral history provides information whether or not they
were hunters or gathers. Depending what they would eat would vary on where
abouts they lived. During this period, carbohydrates and fats where not consumed in
the same meal. Once they were experienced together it causes mitochondrial wear
and tear and caused the presence of metabolic syndrome (Lustig, 2013). This
syndrome or disease originates from the increasing risk of obesity, it can develop
cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes (Eckel et al., 2005).
Lustig (2013) suggests that it was only until the early 1980s that concerns about
fats, carbohydrates and sugars started to exist as the levels of obesity started to

incline. When foods had high levels of fat which had to be taken out, higher levels of
carbohydrates and sugars where put back into the food to make it taste better. It is a
no win situation, carbohydrates and sugars together can be just as bad as fat alone.
Diabetes is one of the most common lifelong conditions that exists in the United
Kingdom. Diets for diabetics can be the same as anyone, all foods are allowed to be
eaten but some should be eaten in less quantities than others. It is important to eat
complex carbohydrates if you are diabetic as they take longer to break down and do
not cause a spike in glucose and insulin levels (Walker & Rodgers, 2010). In recent
years there has been a higher risk of the development of type 2 diabetes, this is
where the body cannot produce enough insulin to break down the glucose in the
blood. This disease generally occurs from obesity. Esposito et al., (2014) suggests
that there is no one diet to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes. One main
diet which has been proven in many studies to which can considerably reduce the
risk is the Mediterranean diet as glycaemic index is controlled (Esposito & Giugliano,
2014).
To conclude in this writing there is no one diet that is the best. There are many
personal attributes which can affect the positive progression of these diets. Many
people have an addiction to food and find it hard to give up the foods they love in
order to lose weight or to have a healthier lifestyle. It is harder to adhere to a diet if
the foods that are included are not readily available or at an extortionate price
(Brownell & Gold, 2012). Diets can all be down to personal preference in food taste.
The more someone likes the taste of foods the higher chance they will stick to eating
it.

Dieting should consist of a healthy balanced diet which follows the National

Dietary Guidelines (Health.GOV, 2010). If everything is balanced and energy

expenditure is the same as energy consumption, then there is no need for a diet.

Within this writing it was made clear that the Mediterranean was proven to be most
effective and easy to follow. High protein diets can be bad for your bones if taken in
high quantities, these should be followed carefully and not taken to extreme. Low in
carb diets will benefit your health and enable you to lose weight whereas low fat diet
includes foods with high carbohydrates and high sugars causing the person to gain
weight and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. A diet is only the best if the
person using it, enjoys it. There has been much literature support and evidence for
diets and their ways of preventing diseases. An area in which was lacking in
evidence was the comparison between different diets. It takes great determination to
stick to a diet if the affects wanted are long term.

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