Let’s start with the fact that the right diet is a way of life, not just a menu for a day or a week.
Why not understand nutrition from a nutritional perspective, not just dietetics? And not just looking for a quick way to reach a new level of the dimensional grid – from large to double extra-small, but also to assess the scale of the effect of food on the body. Why, for example, sometimes you crave shish kebab, and sometimes candy? And why does one want to sleep after a burger, and after a handful of nuts a second wind opens up?
Let’s look at the features of eating behavior using the example of the newfangled keto and paleo diets. In fact, in the West, they have been arguing about these theories for ten years, it is our trend that has come to them only now. They differ from each other, but there is something that unites them:
1. The two low-carbohydrate;
2. those who lose weight do not starve in either case (that is, they literally eat and lose weight);
3. With both diets, people actually lose weight.
All of this is common. Now more about each.
What is the keto diet
It is based on fats: they make up 70-80% of the diet, another 20% are proteins, and only 5-10% are carbohydrates. The body receives energy from glucose, which can be obtained in two ways: from carbohydrates (bread, cereals, sweets) and from fats (eggs, butter, nuts, avocados, etc.).
Imagine that our body is a stove, into which it is necessary to constantly add fuel – glucose. So, with a deficit of the latter, our stove is looking for alternative fuel – fats. When we cut back on carbohydrates, the body switches to fat stores in the liver. It melts them, converting energy into so-called ketones, which nourish the body and brain. This process is called ketogenesis, hence the name “keto diet”.
American professor, M.D. Stephen Finney, founder of Virta Health Clinic in San Francisco (known for helping those suffering from diabetes), supports the idea of the effectiveness of the keto diet.
“I went to medical college and they told us that for the brain to function optimally, it needs 600 kcal of glucose every day. Just imagine, our brain is the size of a small melon and weighing only 3 pounds (≈1.4 kg) burns as much as 600 kcal per day! ” – shared Finney.
But later he found that the head works no worse on fats than on glucose. And this is not alternative nutrition for the brain, it can be basic.
The diet in the keto diet is varied, fatty: meat (vitamins, minerals, coenzyme Q), fish (omega-3 fatty acids), vegetables (vitamins, fiber), dairy products (fats, trace elements), eggs, nuts. But there is also something that is strictly prohibited: sugar and any sweets, cereals, pasta, fruits, some vegetables: root crops, legumes, corn. There are a lot of Hollywood stars among the followers of the keto diet, including: Halle Berry, Vanessa Hudgens, Adriana Lima, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian.
Those who lose weight note positive results: sugar levels are normalized, cheerfulness appears, migraines disappear, cravings for sweets and extra pounds disappear.
What is the paleo diet
The Paleo diet is called the Paleolithic era, which ended 10 thousand years ago. Our ancestors hunted animals, collected plants, and roots to feed themselves and their fellow tribesmen. The hunter-gatherers ate fresh, seasonal and organic food.
Yes, it was not easy for them: try to catch fish in the river with your bare hands, like Tom Hanks in the movie “Rogue”, or go mushrooming in the rainy season. But they were not tormented by the problems of excess weight and heart failure, because they were unwittingly active, almost in a healthy lifestyle, in order to survive in difficult wild conditions. People ate raw, unprocessed, and low-fat foods! Thanks to this, the cavemen did not suffer from diabetes, obesity, gastritis, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s diseases.
Yes, they had a high mortality rate due to low immunity, climatic conditions or an unsuccessful encounter with a predatory beast, but they did not have such health problems as we often have. That is why many nutritionists and nutritionists have paid attention to this type of nutrition – and adapted it for us.
What you can eat during the Paleo diet: meat, fish, poultry, vegetables, fruits, berries, algae, herbs.
What the Paleo diet excludes from the diet: sugar and sugar-containing foods, junk food, or any other processed foods, including convenience foods, milk, bread, and any buns, starchy vegetables such as potatoes and sweet potatoes.
The price of the issue, however, is quite high: most of the diet consists of organic meat, vegetables, and fruits, but in our country (depending on the region) these products are a little bit pricy. We do not undertake to speak for the whole country, but in Moscow, for example, a kilogram of cherries will cost you 2 euros. (source: AGRO24 price base, July 2018), and on the market in Spain – only 2 euros. Do you feel the difference?
That is, the vitamin menu will result in a tidy sum. But! Do you know how much it will cost you drugs for chronic or acquired diseases and visits to doctors after eating “budget” foods? It’s up to you, but health is priceless, period.
Meat, poultry, fish are required items in the paleo menu. Nobody is against vegetarians, but nobody is in favor. Everyone has their own way, and one must respectfully treat both meat-eaters and the “green” 🙂 The famous nutritionist and endocrinologist Katya Yang spoke about the role of meat in our diet: “The first months of a person on a plant-based diet give amazing results: the skin improves lightness – the coolest detoxification of the body.
But, unfortunately, without complete protein, including from meat, after 8, 10, 15 years, the entire human enzyme system begins to “crumble”.
And without enzymes, we will not be able to digest food, launch detox processes, and exist! So in the long run, giving up meat isn’t good. ” It is fair to say that the meat that the caveman feasted on was very different from today. Farmers feed cattle with hormones and additives for greater productivity (milk) and weight gain – hence a sharp decrease in the quality of meat and the number of nutrients and vitamins in it.
Which diet to choose
The choice is ours: to continue eating tasty, “convenient” (the most accurate definition – junk food), processed food and become more obese, depressed, suffering from disease. Or start eating meat, fruits, berries and vegetables – normal food!
Be not thin, but viable. Not slim, but hardy.
It is important to be able to distinguish between these concepts and not engage in substitution of values. Man created artificial intelligence, almost defeated cancer, conquered outer space and, of course, became smarter than cave ancestors. But today, for some reason, Homo sapiens returns to the roots, looking for answers in the history of their forefathers, who understood what is needed for health. They didn’t walk around with protein bars and granola, didn’t drink fat burners, they just worked, stick together and tried to live in harmony with nature.
If you are unsure of your diet, then just ask yourself, “Will I be able to eat like this all my life?”
Be honest with yourself: there is hardly an adequate person in the world who will happily adhere to the Kremlin, Dyukanov, or other “obscurantist” diet for the rest of the day. Unless, of course, he is prone to masochism and obsessions. After all, the main thing in a diet is not the diet itself, but a certain lifestyle. In which there is common sense and not just a simple (albeit understandable) desire of a person to lose weight and finally love his body.