Dieting to Death: The Favorite Diet Foods of Truly Dedicated Diet Zombies

Posted on Balanced Nutrition | November 7, 2008 | Comments Off

The other day I was riding in the car with my mother-in-law and we started talking about her job. She is a nurse in a doctor’s office and has devoted her whole life to this profession. She told me that at work there are about ten girls who are always trying to lose weight. In order to lose weight every week each one of them brings a 12 pack of Diet Coke and by the end of the week all this Soda is gone. They have been doing it for years now and do you think that any of them have lost any weight? Not really, actually most of them gained some weight. My mother-in-law also told me that she gets a lot of over-weight patients who come to the doctor’s office and ask for some medication (phentermine usually) because regular diets do not work for them. They say that they eat all kinds of diet foods like diet Coke, diet Chips, sugar-free candies, reduced-fat peanut butter and salad dressings and they still do not lose weight. It would seem to most people that after eating such mass amounts of this diet crap that a person would at least see a few results. I started thinking to myself about why so many people buy diet food in search of weight loss only to end of weighing more than they did before they started this futile venture. This of course (as always) pushed me into doing a little research to find out more.

Diet junk food

When I think of diet products I usually think about diet Coke, fat-free or reduced fat Chips and other junk food, reduced-fat peanut butter, skim milk, low-fat yogurt and low-fat ice-cream. People (I call them “diet zombies”) usually want to eat a lot of sweet stuff without consuming all those calories from sugar. They want to eat rich creamy-tasting foods without calories from fat and of course they want to eat all those fried junk-foods without being concerned about trans fat as well as hundreds of calories. I divided the diet foods that I pay more attention to and used to eat occasionally (yes, I am guilty of it too) into several categories. Then I found out why these foods are not only ineffective in making you lose weight but can be extremely harmful to your health.

1. Diet coke and other sugar-free products: All these products use artificial sweeteners Aspartame, Sweet’n’Low, Splenda, and a dozen other sugar-like compounds instead of sugar that are very low in calories (most “diet zombies” are searching for their favorite 0 calorie figure in the nutritional value section on the product) and very high in side-effects. These artificial sweeteners have been linked to cancer, migraines, birth defects, depression, infertility, seizures, thyroid problems, and WEIGHT GAIN. Sweet taste triggers the release of insulin into your blood. Insulin inhibits a fat burning hormone called HSL and as a result your body does not use fat for fuel any more and you stop losing weight. As your body uses amino acids from your muscles instead of fat for fuel at the end of the day you feel tired and grumpy. Some experts also think that artificial sweeteners increase your appetite because your body goes into a state of shock when it does not get the calories that it needs. This shock tells the body that since it is not getting the calories and fat that it needs that it should immediately start to store any fat or calories that it receives instead of burning it off. As a result you gain weight instead of losing it.
2. Reduced-fat products: These are products that have 25% less fat than the original product. Manufacturers usually add sugar to enhance the taste of the reduced-fat version and as a result you are looking at the same amount of calories as in the original version or sometimes even more. Manufacturers usually get rid of the good fats (it’s easier to remove them from the product) but they leave all the saturated and trans fats for you. Good fats are fats that help you control your cholesterol and that are required for your body to function properly; they include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. The best example can be reduced-fat peanut butter. Both versions have 190 kcal in 2 tablespoons and approximately the same amount of saturated fat (the one that is bad for you) but the reduced-fat version is low in unsaturated fat that is very good for your heart. So is the reduced-fat version better? I would say that it’s much worse.
3. Fat-free products: These products usually use fat substitutes with which the long-term consequences of which are still not known. One of the most common fat substitutes today is Olestra that is proven to cause diarrhea, gas and intestinal cramps. Fat substitutes have the feel of the real thing but they are not absorbed into the human body. Here comes the big question: if some amount of this substance is absorbed into the body will it be toxic or not? What will be the consequences of this substance? I ask myself this question every time when I see some fat-free product and usually end up not buying it. Fat substitutes also strip your body of important vitamins and nutrients such as vitamin E and carotenoids.
4. Tasty cardboard: If you take all the sugar out of food, get rid of the fat and carbs then what do you have left? – Nothing. In order to make this nothing tasty manufacturers add artificial flavors and taste enhancers that tend to be addictive (at least that’s what they say about MSG – monosodium glutamate – the most popular of this flavor enhancers). As a result people crave this food more and more often and of course they end up eating much more than they are supposed to.
5. Dairy products: I know you expect me to say something bad about it too, but I am actually all for it. Skim milk, 2% cheese, low-fat sour cream and cottage cheese, low-fat yogurt – all these products are really good for you and they do not contain any harmful substances. The only product I am careful about is yogurt because manufacturers tend to add artificial sweeteners in some of them to make them more attractive to calorie-conscious people and stuff it with tons or artificial flavors. The more natural the yogurt is the better it is for you, even if it’s gonna have a few more calories than the diet version.

I think that pretty much sums it up in a nutshell and should make you think the next time you decide to be a “diet zombie”. The reason why is because today we experience tremendous increases in the cases of cancer and I think that all of these artificial food additives are to blame. I have never heard of people living to their hundredth birthday and eating all this crap but I have heard of people living to their hundredth birthday and eating simple natural foods. I think that God created food for us to eat it and to restore our energy. He did not create foods that have no calories or nutritional value and our bodies simply were not made for those types of foods. Eating moderately and eating a balanced diet is the best way to lose weight, to stay slim and to live to your hundredth birthday or even longer. I personally prefer it much more than all the other modern high-tech super junk foods that can seem so tempting. You should decide what choice is the best for you.

Keep it balanced!