Thinking about trying that trendy diet your friends on Instagram love? Before you explain the latest celebrity trend the best diet, check out the science. While many diets promise rapid weight loss, they often have a downside. We asked experts to help us separate the truth from the hype for four popular diets that many believe are the best diet. Here's what we learned:
Diet:High in protein, low in carbohydrates
Popular diets such as Atkins and Paleo emphasize high-protein, low-carbohydrate foods during their initial stages. Later, both diets add carbohydrates slowly. However, Paleo eliminates grains, legumes and dairy products.
The positive: hunger pangs are rare, as protein suppresses your appetite. Many rave that low carb is the best diet because you lose weight because the diet causes your body to enter "ketosis," a process that shifts it from using carbohydrates to burning fat for fuel. By removing sugars, starchy foods and refined flour, it also improves your insulin levels. The more carbs you can cut out, the better, especially sugars and highly processed foods, which tend to have more carbs. A high-carb diet generates a lot of glucose, which means you have to produce more insulin to remove it. This puts a strain on your body and over time can contribute to the risk of cardiovascular disease or diabetes.
The bad: cutting carbs at the most extreme level can lead to eliminating fresh fruits and vegetables, meaning you're missing out on their nutritional benefits. Eating a lot of protein without the fiber can lead to constipation, especially in the beginning. You may also feel tired and irritable for the first two weeks as your body switches to burning fat for energy. Emphasizing meat protein leads to consuming too much saturated fat – especially when limiting or eliminating plant-based sources such as beans and legumes.
Diet:Ketogenic (Keto)
The ketogenic diet is a variant of Atkins that calls for extremely low carbohydrates, moderate protein and high fat.
The good: like Atkins, the diet lowers insulin levels and shifts your body toward burning fat. It can also improve your cholesterol levels.
The bad: drastically reducing your fiber intake puts you at a higher risk of constipation. The diet also leaves you feeling cranky for the first few weeks. That's because you lose the serotonin and the energy you normally get from carbohydrates. Many people also undergo sugar withdrawal and feel tense. But after a few weeks they feel better. However, this is not the best diet:it should be avoided by anyone with kidney problems, as constant ketosis alters urine chemistry and increases the risk of developing kidney stones.
Diet:Detox juice cure Consisting of fruits, vegetables, or a combination of juices, this liquid diet reduces calories and mimics fasting. If done for more than two days, it also shifts the body toward burning fat for energy.
The good: it lowers insulin levels and allows your metabolism to rest. By resting the processes involved in digesting food, you reduce things like stress hormones and insulin-like growth factors, which can reduce your cancer risk.
The bad: you will probably feel hungry. Drinking a lot of fruit juice can leave you feeling moody as your blood sugar rises and then falls. If a cleanse lasts longer than a few days, your body thinks it is starving and shifts to burning fewer calories. Choosing juice over fruit gives you a high dose of sugar, but none of the fiber that can slow absorption and make you feel fuller.
Diet:Raw food
This diet usually includes raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and sprouted grains. Some versions contain unpasteurized dairy products, raw eggs or fish.
The good: you get a lot of fiber, vitamins and minerals by eating unprocessed food.
The bad: because it contains so much fiber, you may feel gassy, bloated, and have frequent bowel movements. You may also be exposed to toxins found in some raw foods or lack nutrients that are more easily absorbed when food is cooked. For example, the antioxidant lycopene in tomatoes is more available when the tomatoes are heated than when eaten raw. Mushrooms contain carcinogens that are only destroyed when cooked.
While all four diets can help you lose weight, the best diet for long-term good health is a balanced diet that includes plenty of fruits and vegetables, and free of highly processed foods, sugar, and simple carbohydrates.
