The Truth About Diets

Vegetarian Diet

The Vegetarian Diet is fairly self-explanatory. The diet is comprises eating vegetables and vegetable sources of food. Although some Vegetarians may consume dairy, some even fish. Generally the idea is to avoid meat and fish. Some vegetarians would avoid all animal based products as well such as dairy etc.

Well I must say going back to the balance thing, while there are various forms of vegetable protein, I still wanted fish occasionally, and overall with being able to consume some meat, increases my overall satisfaction. Allow me to continue. Commonly there is the risk of vitamin B-12 deficiency with the vegetarian diet, so it’s important to supplement. Also, I think it’s important to have the right balance of protein and carbohydrates as well. Omega 3 fatty acids are important as well, so the diet should included either supplementation in the form of fish oils, or if that is unfavourable, use flax oil or a good blend like Udos oils. I’m partial to fish oils – as they are already in a form the body can use but other oils are not, requiring the body to take that extra step. I’d have to say I felt pretty good on it.

Zone Diet

The Zone diet allowed me to lose weight. I felt more alert mentally and physically and really happy with my meals. This diet emphasizes proportioning your food. It maintains that the right proportions of food encourage the production of eichasonoids (link to eichasonoids), which really balance out the rest of the body with respect to blood sugar, energy, mental focus and so on.

The caloric ratio of every meal should be 30% fat, 30% protein, and 40% carbohydrates. You are not counting calories but rather zone blocks. This method of counting is fairly easy to use. A necessary part of figuring the size of a zone block would be to calculate your body mass (link to body mass calculation and how to determine the right amount of protein). This allows you to figure out exactly how grams of fat, protein, and carbohydrates you should consume. Once have this information, counting blocks is quite easy.

Over time you become quite aware of how many zone blocks a particular food or meal would be. So it does involve some counting, which is not that hard and I think the benefits are well worth it. They definitely were for me. So, the Zone diet is my favourite diet and it definitely has produced the most results, all of which have been beneficial. I have been able to quite easily maintain my ideal weight without feeling so restricted and by allowing delicious meals.

Alkalizing Diet

This diet consists of primarily eating foods that are alkalizing (making up 70% of the diet) and keeping acidic foods to 30% of one‘s diet.  Some examples of alkalizing foods would be: avocados, green leafy vegetables like Kale, Spinach, lettuce etc., Green Peppers, Cauliflower.  Acidic foods would be animal protein, even tofu (if more than 30% of diet), and also seafood.

While on the Alkalizing Diet I did lose weight and fairly quickly.  I certainly felt healthy just knowing I was eating plenty of vegetables.  Certainly a diet which promotes for the most part a vegetarian lifestyle, with some infrequent fish is very healthy.

The only problem I had is that that I did feel myself craving foods that weren’t allowed.  At times, I might smell a steak or something else wafting from a restaurant and I’d get quite a craving.  Sometimes I would binge on those bad items.  The diet certainly promotes foods that are alkalizing which is very good, but some alkalizing approaches limit the recommended protein to about 7%.  I feel this is too low.  It does maintain that vegetables have a certain amount of amino acids, which chemically are the building blocks of protein.  Although this may be true, I did feel my meals were burning off quickly.

Overall, I lacked energy on this diet.

Some alkalizing approaches even stress eliminating any fermented foods and any sugars – from natural fruit sugar to of course table sugar, honey, maple syrup.  While I do feel this elimination may be beneficial to perhaps a diabetic, I do feel that very moderate consumption of sugar may not be that bad.  Some approaches maintain sugars ferment and leave mycotxins in the body.  This may be true but my feeling is that everyone probably has a certain threshold for these mycotoxins and by eating a healthy diet, drinking water, and maintaining other healthy habits, one can help shed these mycotoxins.  Some approaches view fungi as a bad thing.   So even mushrooms, which have known health benefits, should be avoided.  While I certainly agree we don’t want to consume large amounts mold or fungus – look at Candida, Athletes food, or other fungal infections.  I feel we probably have a certain tolerance threshold.   There are likely small amounts of mold and fungus present in many things we eat anyway, so by having other healthy habits our body can probably deal with a certain level of mold or fungus.

Overall I did lose weight on this diet and certainly don’t feel it’s be a detrimental diet, and indeed has many benefits, I just found it a bit too rigid and controlling, and again a hard one for me to stay on long term.