A Little History About Diets
Every now and then, a new diet trend blows up on the internet.
Since the early 1900s, there has been an evolution of what is considered healthy and what is recommended as a daily intake.
Many guidelines have been set by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But as new technologies emerge, we are discovering new developments in how food is processed and how the body digests it. This creates a big problem for the regular person going to the grocery store because…
Who had nutrition at school?
But worst of all…
Who can keep up with all the new developments in technology?
The USDA, HHS, and FDA are setting general guidelines, but this doesn’t address individual needs.
So in this article, we will walk through some of the trends and how they have evolved over time to better understand why Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z have such different ideas of a good or bad diet. We will also give a few tips that you should include in yours.
Why Do You Want To Start A Diet?
As always, the why is the first question to answer.
In this case, it’s usually for one of these 2 reasons:
- Change your weight (lose or gain).
- Improve your health (blood glucose, digestion, etc.)
Even though we are rational human beings, eating is triggered by an emotional reaction that makes you feel or act in a certain way. Even though you might already know what a healthy diet is, the body may be asking you to eat something else.
This means you don’t only need to know what to eat; you need to plan ahead of time to avoid sabotage from your cravings! Remember, the gut is considered a second brain.
You need to train your body in a way, so your emotions and cravings are aligned with healthy eating habits.
This is not an easy task these days!
Why?
Maybe this sounds familiar…
You know that eating an apple as a snack is healthy, but you crave a pizza, then you see an advertisement for coke, you are stressed at work or home, and what happens? You don’t want to think anymore, and you have the first thing you see!
We’ve all been there.
So what are some basic things you should consider before starting a diet?
How To Analyze And Understand A Diet?
Here are a few things you should always be aware of:
- What category of food does the diet allow you to have (Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, Dairy, Meats, Nuts, Seeds, Oils, etc.) – For Allergies
- How was the food processed to get in the grocery store (organic vs. processed foods) – For Health
- Macro proportions – For Energy
- Fiber – For Digestion
- Calorie density – For Weight
Now let’s dive into some popular diets in the past and check out what they recommended.
Diet Trends Through The Decades
The 50s, 60s, and 70s Diets – It’s All About The Calories
1950s: Cabbage Soup (Low Calorie, High Fiber)
1960s: Weight Watchers (Low Calorie)
1970s: Grapefruit (Low Calorie)
So what happened during the 50s, 60s, and 70s? The recommendation was to go on a calorie deficit in a short period of time by adding food that helped your metabolism (grapefruit) or improve digestion with high fiber (cabbage soup).
This approach will help you lose weight, but leaving out macro composition, the nutritional value of food and the variety on the plate will have damages your long-term health.
Weight Watchers is a very popular diet nowadays, so they didn’t get it all wrong.
The 80s and 90s Diets – The Macro Contradiction Decades
1980s: Slim fast (Low Fat)
1990s: Atkins (High Fat)
Then we have 2 decades that contradict each other. The 80s came with an innovative low-fat diet, but the 90s said a high-fat diet was better. Both focus on the macro composition but don’t focus on the quality of food (fat in this case).
So you could be on a low-fat diet and not get the healthy fats like avocado and nuts, or you could be on a high-fat diet and be eating too many unhealthy trans fats. So the quality of food was the issue in these decades.
2000s To Date Diets – Explosion Of Information!
2000s: South Beach , Paleo, Keto
2010s: Juicing , Whole 30, Vegan
2020s: Volumetrics, Flexitarian, Mediterranean, DASH, Noom
Nowadays, so many diets are popping up everywhere that it is getting complicated even for nutritionists.
Everyone is taking sides on which one is better and why the other is worse, but that doesn’t help the regular person who just wants an easy guideline.
Every diet has great arguments, and we can’t do all of them simultaneously. We need to analyze and decide by ourselves what is best. But having so many options is not making it any easier!
So why don’t we go with a different approach? Let’s see what most of them have in common, and let’s at least try to include these habits in our daily nutrition.
A Few Tips on How To Start Your Diet
Even though many diets don’t agree in some aspects as to what is healthy or not, there are many common grounds they share.
Here are some things the most popular diets have in common:
- All diets agree that vegetables have a great source of nutritional value. Add more veggies to your meals!
- The fewer processed foods, the better for the body. Avoid the frozen section in the groceries; most of it is processed. Fast food chains? you guessed it, processed. Try to find other options.
- Intermittent Fasting keeps getting more hype these days, with new studies showing more of its health benefits. The best part is combining it with any diet since it is a time restriction feeding, not a diet. So just to clarify this, a diet will usually focus on what you eat, not when you eat it.
- What to drink? Try to avoid sodas and sugary drinks! Water, sparkling water, coffee, and tea are great options.
- Sugar and salt? Try to keep it at a minimum. Most of the daily sugar and salt intake you need is already in the food you eat.
As we said at the beginning of the article, you might already know what is healthy and what is not.
Maybe this article will help as a reminder, but if you learned something new, we are glad to help with your journey!
