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General comments on diets. Which diet is the right one?

WEIGHING IN ON DIETS

There are many effective diets. I don’t deny that and I’m not saying that they should be avoided.

The goal is not to get into petty quarrels, but rather to lose weight and keep it off, if possible.

You need to be pragmatic rather than dogmatic.

If someone successfully loses weight by following a diet that differs from mine, I’ll strongly encourage her to continue no matter what diet she is on, as long as it is not dangerous. I would not attempt to knock her diet and claim that mine is better.

I’ve been prescribing my diet for almost twenty years.

I’ve modified and refined it over the years, in order to optimize it and, above all, to simplify it and make it more accessible.

But its core remains the same.

Even so, I follow diet developments very closely in France and around the world, because I give lectures in several European countries, in North America, in Russia,…

And I must keep abreast of what happens in the diet world – my work depends on it.

So why do I remain faithful to a diet when there are so many others?

I don’t think the real issue is whether some diet or other works or not, because all diets are effective to some degree.

These are the real issues:
- Why and how do these diets work, do they result in long-lasting weight loss and, more importantly, do they resolve the real weight-related problem?
- If a diet does not work, you’ll find out fast enough.
- A diet that works isn’t necessarily better than other diets.

You need to take a step back and take the time to understand how these diets work. You’ll then realize that in most cases, their somewhat irrational and oft-arbitrary theories can easily be debunked.

Once you get the skinny on their theories, you’ll understand once and for all the real problem behind weight gain. As a result, you won’t spend your life going from one fad diet to another, like the media encourage you to do all too often. Magazines make money by selling new ideas.

I won’t talk about so-called “balanced” low-calorie diets that have you eat a little of everything. They’re already examined at length in this website.

I won’t talk about totally absurd diets either, like the Cabbage Soup Diet or other one-food diets that have you eat only one type of food, be it fruit, pasta, meat or grains, for example. I’m not a fan of those diets and they’re bad for your health.

I would like to talk about diets that seem more logical because they convey a scientific theory, like:
- Chrononutrition, whose basic rules are breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper or avoid carbs in the evening.
- Dissociated diets that have you combine certain foods or eat carbohydrates one day, protein the next, etc.
- Blood type diets.
- Glycemic index diets.

And I’ve probably left some out.

All of these diets have one thing in common: they only work for people who have terrible eating habits and who eat too much: way too much sugar and way too much fat.

If that’s your case, any one of these diets will do the trick, but only temporarily, because none is definitive. That’s to be expected, since a diet is not a vaccine against weight gain.

What bothers me a bit about these diets is that they’re based on false speech.

Their creators go out of their way to wow you so that you’ll believe their theories which are unfounded more often than not.

Everyone knows that they can lose weight with any method if they manage to eliminate excesses, overhaul their eating habits and select the right low-glycemic index foods. You don’t need to be an experienced dietitian to understand that.

There’s the Blood Type Diet, for example, which recommends meat and fish, fruit and vegetables based on your blood group. No need to be blinded by science when you know for a fact that at the end of the day you’ll almost always be eliminating dairy products and wheat flour!

Say good-bye to desserts, cake, cheese, bread, pasta. You’ll lose weight all right; however, I’m sorry to say that the Blood Type Diet is a joke and its theory, nonsense.

Generally speaking, you should be aware of “losing weight according to something”, because that “something” is often based on pseudo-scientific theories that are unprovable and even ludicrous.

The DNA Diet, recently promoted in the United States, is based on “cutting-edge DNA analysis of your salvia”. That’s just crazy.

Then there’s the “Bible Diet”, a popular television show in North America. Correct me if I’m wrong, but there was no fast food, ice cream or sweet sodas back in those days.

I would not be the least bit surprised if, one day, there’s an “Astral Diet, Palm Reading Diet, Nostradamus Diet, Weather Diet, Seasonal Diet, Color Diet, etc.” In short, diets to no end.

And what about chrononutrition?

Well, you have whatever you want for breakfast: cheese, deli meats, anything and in generous amounts, too. You go for dense, fatty foods, like cheese, butter, bread, dry fruit (almonds, nuts).

For lunch, you mostly have proteins such as meat, fish or eggs, with starchy foods.

An afternoon snack consists of fruit and a fair amount of all kinds of sugars.

Dinner is the only optional meal.

This diet’s theory is essentially based on the secretion of digestive enzymes, while insulin is the real problem.

Obviously, chrononutrition works. Why does it work?

Because you’ve overhauled your chaotic meals, while also eliminating fast sugars and alcohol.

But is that a diet you could live with for the rest of your life?

Are you sure that you won’t regain the pounds after you’ve finished the diet?

Diets have to stop making those who truly have difficulty eating a lot in the morning feel guilty. Some people just can’t bring themselves to eat a large breakfast and it’s not the end of the world. There’s no point in making a fuss.

Take me, for example. I have a small breakfast. So what? And turning the evening dinner, a time when families gather, into an optional meal is not very bright.

And do you know what? If you start your day with the smallest meal and end it with the biggest and if you overhaul your chaotic diet, you’ll still get results.

There are also food-combining diets.

You have one type of food one day, and another the next. Food-combining diets work for the same reasons as the other diets.

By the way, you’ll notice that there are no days devoted to ice cream or chocolate!

And what about the Montignac Diet?

This hugely popular diet is now wrongly accused of all the evils in the world and blamed for weight regain. That’s unfair, because Montiganc told the truth. Okay, he loosely based himself on the Atkins and Shelton diets. But then again, everyone copies everyone a bit. It’s not a big deal. However, a diet rich in animal fat is not very heart healthy.

Those who lost weight on the Montignac diet and then regained it, should not blame the diet. They regained the weight because they reverted to their bad eating habits. That’s all!

I like the glycemic index diet the most, because it raises a notion that I’ve been subscribing to for more than twenty years. That notion has to do with insulin dysfunction and the role of fast sugars. The glycemic index diet also teaches you how to tell good sugars from bad sugars, contributing more to diet rehabilitation than other diets do.

Authors who claim that their diet is the definitive diet leave me puzzled, because they do not examine the psychological and emotional aspect of sugar.

You may think that’s not their role, and I accept that. But if that’s the case, they should not claim that their diet is more definitive than other diets. The glycemic index diet also has a major drawback – it does not work that well for those who do not necessarily eat a lot of bad sugars.

They won’t shed that many pounds on the diet. And unfortunately, that’s the situation in which many overweight people find themselves.

Selecting foods with the right glycemic index must be a matter of good nutrition. Strictly speaking, the glycemic index diet is not a weight-loss diet.

Besides, when my patients reach the maintenance phase, I always recommend that they opt for low-glycemic index foods.

Glycemic Index See Glossary.

In conclusion, no one invented hot water and no one invented the diet I recommend. I can’t say that I invented it, because others invented it before me. Thousands of my colleagues use it successfully.

As for weight stabilization, that’s a whole other story.