4 Letter Word, pt 2

I actually heard someone say today that they had been dieting all winter and ate awful this last week. Before getting into the next two diets we’re looking at, let me first say that a diet may be seasonal – you might do Keto in the winter and Paleo in the summer – but one week of not following that diet doesn’t mean you have to go overboard in the kitchen or “punish” yourself with exercise. Exercise should not ever be considered a punishment.
On that note, let’s look at two more common eating lifestyles!

LOW CARB
IMPORTANT: Everyone who follows the Keto diet is eating a low carb diet, but not every low carb diet is Keto.
What it is: limited carb -specifically sugars and other simple carbs – intake.
How it got started: low carb became popular with the Atkins diet. Atkins, a cardiologist, started recommending this lifetstyle for his patients. Then, when it worked and his patients were no longer high risk for dying of heart disease, he wrote a book. The rest is history. Now, same as Keto, not all low carb diets are Atkins, but Atkins is low carb.
Should you try it: this isn’t putting your body into a different metabolic state, so I’m not going to say you absolutely have to talk to your doctor or a licensed dietician before trying this diet, but I can’t tell you that yes, this is the lifestyle for you.
Pros: it has been known to help people lose weight which is good for all your body systems. It was specifically promoted to help combat heart disease.
Cons: it’s actually hard to think of cons for this one. The only one I can think is that you might still be tempted to count or track calories instead of looking at the quality of those calories.

VEGETARIAN
What is is: meatless diet. There are branches off of this diet, like pescatarian diet where you eat fish but no other meat, but in general, the vegetarian diet eats no meat, specifically no eating anything that had flesh.
How it got started: there’s not really a good, definitive starting point for this lifestyle. The ancient mathematician Pythagoras was a big proponent of a meatless diet. The vegetarian lifestyle picked up speed again in the mid-1800s.
Should you try it: I’m going to keep my personal, country-girl opinion out of this, but this is a diet you should talk with a licensed dietician about in great detail before starting if you choose this life.
Pros: done right, it can give you a plethora of health benefits, specifically for your heart and digestive system.
Cons: it’s tricky making sure you get the right amount of protein, vitamins, and minerals on a plant-based diet that you would normally get from meat. This one, you do have to actually track the different types of macronutrients – fats, proteins, and carbs – for awhile to make sure you’re getting enough, at least until you get a feel for how it should be done right. Also, if you eat meat, even just a bite, after living this lifestyle for any solid length of time, you will feel absolutely awful.

Fore more information on the Keto and Paleo diets, click HERE.