Episode 1: Another Diet Bites the Dust

In this episode of the Simple Nutrition Podcast for Busy Karens, the host, Leonila Campos, explains why fad diets don't work and how to identify them. She discusses popular diets like the South Beach Diet, Atkins Diet, Keto Diet, Paleo Diet, and the Carnivore Diet, highlighting their restrictions and potential deficiencies. Campos advises listeners to ask themselves if a diet is realistic, sustainable, and healthy before trying it. She also recommends consulting a registered dietitian for personalized nutrition advice. Hey mom and dad, welcome to the Simple Nutrition Podcast for Busy Karens, a show that helps you learn practical and actual nutrition tips from an expert. I'm your host, Leonila Campos, a registered dietitian with over 8 years of experience in the field. In today's episode, I explain why fat diets do not work and help you identify a fat diet so you can stop dieting once and for all. For more tips and tricks on nutrition for busy Karens, sign up for my newsletter at the address in the show notes. So, let's dive into the episode. In today's episode, I want to introduce you to my new podcast, a podcast where I will provide practical and ready-to-use nutrition tips that you can apply right away. In today's episode, and as my first episode, I want to dig into the different diet types, fat diets, which is a perfect topic as we are starting the new year. With that being said, new diets start, or diet trends start to appear with the new year because of the new you, new year, new me. But do you really need to jump on the trendiest diet wagon? You will find out the answers in this episode. Let's start with the definition of a diet because, to be honest with you, it means, the definition is different for my clients versus a health professional versus a dietitian. And so according to the Western Dictionary, diet is food and drink regularly provided or consumed. So, it's totally different, right, when we think of the word diet because that usually comes the restriction, right, like, okay, I'm on a diet, right, what does that mean? It can mean so many things for different people. But the official definition, right, or the definition that the dictionary gives us is that it's just food and drink that we regularly consume. And so with that, right, let's explore some of the trendy diets or trendiest diets that I have seen, you know, more and more occurrence these past five years. So, the first one, and the order is, it's not important. The first one is the South Beach Diet. It was created by Arthur Agatston, which is a doctor, and he focused on following a low-carb diet and his three-phase approach. So, oftentimes, when there is the decrease of a macronutrient, right, and we have three macronutrients, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, and then we have micronutrients, which are your vitamins and minerals and trace minerals, I'll do a podcast on just macronutrients and macronutrients maybe at another time. But just as a quick reminder of why each of the macronutrients, what are the foods that belong into each of the macronutrients. So, protein, where you have your chicken, fish, beef, eggs, Greek yogurt, you have tofu, beans, and amame, and then you have your carbohydrates, right. Some examples are your fruits, your starchy vegetables, potatoes, peas, corn, all your grains, you have your pastas, your noodles, your starches, you have your cereals, beans are included, and legumes are included there, too. And then you have your fats, such as nuts and seeds, and avocados, and oils, and then the fat that comes in, like, the animal products, and cheese. So, those are some examples in case you are wondering what are, you know, the categories for what macronutrients are. So, when a diet restricts a specific macronutrient or a specific food group, which is another thing that I should specify, right, we have five food groups. We have fruits, we have vegetables, we have grains, we have protein, and we have dairy, or how I like to call it, high vitamin C, high calcium foods. So, when a diet, right, or a restricted plan eliminates a food group or reduces the intake of a specific food group for a long period of time, right, we can start, we may be able to start to see some deficiencies or long-term, right, it's not very sustainable, which is the case in your low-calorie or your low-carbohydrate, no-carbohydrate diet. So, South Beach diet is one of them. Then we have your Atkins diet developed by a cardiologist, Robert Atkins, which is another low-carb diet. And another low-carb diet is your keto diet, right, it's a super low-carb diet which restricts carbohydrates to about 25 grams a day. So, when you think of, like, if you ever read a food label, right, or you learn about counting carbohydrates, you know that 25 grams of carbohydrates a day is nothing, right, because when you, to put it in perspective, one slice of bread can give you about 15 to 20 grams of carbohydrates. A small piece of fruit, the same, right, 15 to 20 grams of carbohydrates. A half a cup of rice, right, that's usually about close to over 25 grams of carbohydrates. And so, yeah, 25 grams of carbohydrates is nothing, right, so you, when you're on a diet, you have to eliminate food groups, right, you're eliminating your grains, you're eliminating your fiber, you're eliminating your starchy vegetables. And so, what's left, right, usually your meats, the higher-fat foods, and that's to compensate for the very small amount of carbohydrates that you're consuming. Now, a little bit of background in terms of the keto diet, right, I'm not going to go into detail into these diets because it will take a long time, but the keto diet has some success with people that were having seizures, right, and that's the reason why this diet essentially was developed, under the supervision of a health professional. And so, because when we think of restricting our carbohydrates, right, to a very minimal amount, essentially we're not feeding our brain, which is the main source that the brain needs, right, which is our carbohydrates. Pretty much our entire body needs carbohydrates for fuel. That's the number one source of fuel that our body needs, which is our carbohydrates. So, you know, when we restrict this so much, then essentially we're not feeding the brain the carbs that it needs. And so, in the case of patients that have seizures, right, they noticed that that was helping. But again, this was done under the supervision of a health professional. So, that's all I'm going to say about the keto diet. If you want me to do an episode in more detail about that specifically, I can absolutely do that. Just let me know, send me some comments, and I can go in more detail into that. The next diet is the paleo diet, right, and this focuses on eating, or the premise is that it focuses on eating more like how, or at least how we think our ancestors ate, right, which was, and it also, it's also another diet that it avoided greens, and dilly, and legumes. So, again, we're restricting, we're eliminating main food groups, right. And so, do we really know what our ancestors absolutely ate? And that's, you know, that's an answer where we have to really dig deep into the studies, and the research, and what scientists have found, right. And so, you know, there's that for that paleo diet. And then we have the carnivore diet, which is a more, I'm seeing a more, so this year, or at least this month, I've had several patients tell me already, you know, about the carnivore diet, that they heard it on a podcast, or for an influencer, and that is, you know, doing, I don't know, so many other things. I am actually going to dedicate my next episode, episode two, on just the carnivore diet, because it seems that it is the trendy diet right now. Again, because of influencers that maybe have no background, no nutritional background. And so, this diet basically eliminates everything by animal products, right. So you, just as the name says, you just eat meat, and animal products. So you're eliminating a lot of food groups. That is, that is extremely concerning for me as a dietitian. But anyway, I'll talk, I'll talk more about that on my next episode. So, how do we identify fad diets? The number one thing that you have to look at is, is this diet promising something that is very unrealistic? Although it sounds wonderful, right, for example, lose X amount of pounds in a couple weeks, right, or is restrictive, or is avoiding, or is eliminating food groups. That is a fad diet, right? It's not a healthy diet. That is a fad diet, right? It's not sustainable. And so, if you're so tempted, or if, you know, if you're wanting to start the new year with these goals, and one of your goals is weight loss, or improving your nutrition, or getting, you know, getting your exercise going, I want you to ask you these three questions first. Number one, is this realistic? Number two, is this sustainable? And number three, is this healthy for my body? If you respond yes to all three questions, then go for it, right, because you are asking you those really important questions. If the answer is no to even one of those questions, then don't do it, because you are going to be wasting your money, wasting your time, and could potentially be unhealthy for you long term. And as a busy parent, right, who has time to waste money? Who has time to waste time? Right? I don't. And so, think about those things when you start to, you know, you have these goals, and of course, you want to accomplish these goals, and you tried all these diets, which we know that they don't work. And now, it's a new year, and you want to try a new diet, right? Please don't do it. I want you to really think about your goals, and I want you to think about what are the resources that you need, and maybe who can help you achieve these goals. If it's nutrition, please consult with a dietitian. Dietitians are highly trained professionals, they're specialists that have the education, right, on nutrition. Literally, we are the nutrition experts, food and nutrition experts. We have a bachelor's degree, a master's degree. We've been through a 1200-hour internship in different areas of nutrition and food science, food management, to get us ready to assist our patients or our clients. And then, we have to keep our certification, right? We have to take an exam, a board exam, just like a doctor, pass the exam, get our certification, and then we have to keep up with that by educating ourselves, by staying with the up-to-date research, you know, with 75 units every five years. So, please consult with a dietitian, so that way, you can work with a dietitian on these goals that you have, and that dietitian can create, together, you and her or him, can create an individualized plan that is going to work for you. The other thing, too, that I really want to address with the fad diet is that it's not always going to work for one person and the next person, right? Again, because it's a one-size-fits-all. But the main concern is, if someone has a health condition, and, you know, for example, if someone has blood sugar issues, right, and they eliminate all the carbohydrates, which is where we get our main source of energy, now we're getting into low blood sugars, right? That can be very dangerous. Or maybe we're eliminating carbohydrates again, because that seems like all the diets do that. And you're an athlete, right? When are you going to get your fuel source, which is going to help you to perform better? Or now you're having a high-protein diet, high-meat diet, but you have kidney issues. So now you're affecting your kidneys even more. So see how a diet, just a one-size-fits-all diet is not for everybody, right? And as dietitians, this is what we do. We assess you, then hire you to make sure that whatever feedback we give you, whatever plan we make for you or create with you, is addressing those factors, right? It's looking at you as an entire person, and we're making sure that we're giving you the best advice that we can as a health professional. So there's that. And with that in mind, I want you to understand that the information in this podcast is just for educational purposes, right? It's not a replacement for medical advice or therapy. I suggest you seeking out help from a trained professional to help you with your specific needs. So busy mom and dad, again, if your goals for 2024 are to get healthy or become the best version of you, get clear with those goals. Find a dietitian to help you with your nutrition. Find a personal trainer to help you create a fitness plan so you can be successful and you can achieve your goals. You are busy. You cannot do it alone all the time. If you continue to do the things that you've done up to this point and nothing's changing, something has to happen, right? Something has to change from your end. So don't waste your time or your money on trying fad diets or a one-size-fits plan. So please tune in next week for my second episode on the carnivore diet and why this is not for you. Thank you for tuning in. Stay healthy and stay strong.