It’s no surprise that the diet industry has become popular within recent years. With increasing focus on body image and social media presence, it seems that more and more people are jumping on to the diet bandwagon. While I personally don’t have anything against people participating in diets (after all, some of them can be kind of fun!), I do believe that every diet is not for every body. Because our bodies are all so unique, we each need different things to remain at optimal health. This is why it’s important to take all of the information we find in the diet industry with a grain of salt. More than anything we could do for our bodies, the best thing would be to listen to it.
When I was in high-school, I became really interested in nutrition and ended up doing quite a bit of research to find out what was “healthy” and what was not. To my surprise, I ended up finding a lot of information to be contradictory between the different sites I was doing my research on. One would say a certain type of food is really good for you while another would warn everyone never to eat it. Each of these sites also had ample research supporting their claims. From this experience, I quickly learned that a lot of what goes on within this industry is based on opinion and personal experience.
While there may be research to back up what any of these people are proposing with their diets, it’s important to remember that you don’t necessarily know how applicable that research may be when it comes to you and your body. There are a lot of different factors that go into a research study, and several things that could make it less valid for you–particularly if the research subjects had different body types/needs compared to you.
With that in mind, it becomes clear that each diet you choose to participate in should first be examined to make sure it’s not something that will end up doing your body more harm than good.
Additionally, it’s important to remember that temporary diets are never as effective as a healthy lifestyle over long periods of time. This is where the focus on you and your body really comes in. Recognizing that your body may require different foods than other people’s bodies will help you to really hone in on what your body needs to feel good and healthy.
Knowing that it’s important to listen to your body is one thing, but knowing how to do it is a whole other story. One of the best tips I could give you for this is to start keeping track of what you are eating and how it makes your body feel throughout the day. This can be done in any notebook/journal you choose, or you can even get an app right on your phone to keep track.
Once you start keeping track of what you eat and how you feel, it becomes much easier to look back and make some important connections. One thing I recently realized by doing this was that I end up feeling really tired and irritable whenever I eat a lot of white bread or processed foods. Having that journal and listening to my body has helped me to realize what my bodies likes and what it doesn’t.
In summary, while I won’t say that all diets and food trends are bad, I do think it is most often more effective to eat intuitively and listen to your body. The more you practice this, the better you will become at it. Let me know if you do end up keeping track, and reach out to me through the contact page at the top of my site to tell me how it goes!
Thanks for reading! 💕
Mind & Body 