By definition the word “diet” means many things including: the foods that humans and animals eat;, a regular intake of anything, and a regulated intake of foods meant to promote weight loss. The word comes to the English language via an ancient Greek word meaning “course of life” and an old French word.
Confused? You are certainly not alone. For many people the word diet is a word meant to torture them, to vex their soul, conjuring up images of endless glasses of water and small portions of flavorless and unappetizing foods. For a diet to be actually effective for the majority of people, it has to have several factors:
– It has to include a wide variety of foods from every food group
– It has to be healthy and nutritious
– It has to include enough calories to be realistic, safe, and achievable
– It has to include alternatives for every suggested food to accommodate food allergies and intolerances as well as to give a little more flexibility and variety
– Must take into account the way that the individual eats
– Must take into account the lifestyle of today’s person
– Must emphasize the importance of exercise as well
– Must be scientifically researched and endorsed for safety
– Should be one that the doctor agrees is safe for the individual
It is important that the psychology of the word diet also be understood. After all, your mind plays an important role in how often you eat, why you eat, and how much food you take in each time.
The Brains Behind Your Gut
For many people, weight gets out of control because the signals from the brain and the stomach are not getting read correctly or are not getting through at all. We eat for a number of reasons beyond just hunger including emotional eating, habitual eating, and boredom. We also mistake other cues that the body uses for hunger and eat when we could have just had a glass of water and been fine.
Our cars let us know when it needs to be refueled by a gauge- some cars will beep or a light will flash or all of the above. Even when these things are broken, we know about when our car will be running on empty and needs to be refueled. Our bodies do not have these gauges at all, but there are signals that let us know it is time for refueling. It is important though to know the difference between real hunger and the other reasons that we eat.
Real Hunger
For some people, the body gets fed at that first signal of hunger- the first rumble in the tummy or the first insistent thought that pops into the head. The stomach assesses its contents and finds that it is empty and will send a message to the brain, which sends messages to certain hormones that will stimulate the appetite. If nothing is accomplished by this process, the signals will be sent out again with more force. Eventually the body will either get what it wants because you ate some food or it will stop sending up the signal for a while, think that it is starving and shut down the metabolic effort. If the body continues to think that it is starving, it will also start shutting down certain other systems that it will deem unnecessary in times of red-alert-emergency. Your body does not understand that you are on a “diet” so when you abstain from eating, it panics.
The difference between real hunger and just a craving is simple; real hunger does not disappear in 15 minutes while a craving for a snack will. Before you eat, you should ask yourself several questions:
– When is the last time that I ate? If it was more than a few hours ago, you might actually be hungry and could benefit from a small snack or a light meal.
– Am I mad, sad, glad, or bored?
– Am I only eating because it is a certain time of day or because I see other people eating as well?
– If I wait 15 minutes, will I still be hungry?
Slowing down and taking assessment of your body and how you are feeling can keep you from mindless munching and emotional eating. It can also help you recognize the difference between real hunger and the false hungers that can drive us to throw all the diet rules out of the window for a donut.
Diets for the Real World
There are diets that suggest that you cook huge vats of soup and eat a bowl of the concoction before every meal. While the reasoning is valid and the soup is actually nutritious and tasty, it may not work for everyone. There are many people who are on the road the majority of the day for their jobs, traveling from place to place. Many of these same people are stuck in their cars for hours on end with nothing to keep them company but the radio and nothing to eat but the foods found in roadside diners and small grocery stores. It is important then, that diets, no matter what kind they are, address the needs of the people of today.
Even people who do not work outside of the home are too busy to sit down for a meal on a typical diet’s schedule all of the time. Finding alternatives for the fast foods that are found on the road can be the only way for these people to eat well and still lose weight. Packing a snack or even a meal replacement can be a very viable option for these people but must be done carefully. These alternatives must still be healthy and give the right nutrition, travel well and be convenient for eating on the run. Isometric, the world’s smallest and most balanced ready-to-drink meal replacement might be one of the best suggestions for these busy people and is available from Protica. Each serving of Isometric has two full servings of fruits and vegetables, ten grams of fiber, six grams of essential fatty acids, Omega 3 and Omega 6 and 27 vitamins and minerals. Each serving is just over three ounces in size and can be consumed in seconds. Isometric comes in a number of flavors and can be used in conjunction with any oth er diet plan.
Eating a protein-rich snack such as Isometric or the other Protica supplements can keep your eating in control and your diet on track because protein is proven to help with hunger and is also beneficial to the metabolism as well.
Protica Research (Protica, Inc.) specializes in the development of Capsulized Foods. Protica manufactures Profect, IsoMetric, Pediagro, Fruitasia and over 100 other brands, including Medicare-approved, whey liquid protein for cancer patients. You can learn more at Protica Research – Copyright