Summary and Evaluation

 

The Popular Diets (The Big Four)

Blowout Diet
Philosophy: Eat little everyday, skip some meals, or eat one day and starve the next.
How It Works: Literally speaking, an overweight body that is not fed properly will be forced to lose weight.
Downside: Our body is conditioned to eat at a proper time. Without a pattern, our body will readjust itself resulting to abnormal eating.

Atkins Diet
Philosophy: You cut down on your carbohydrate intake and load up on fats and proteins.
How It Works: When the body takes in fewer carbohydrates, it gets its energy by burning fat instead of carbohydrates. This occurs when the liver turns stored fat into a chemical compound called ketone, which is used as the body’s energy fuel.
Downside: Long-term adherence can become a problem. It is hard to stick to a diet that restricts the dieter from his or her favorites in the food pyramid.

3-Day Diet
Philosophy: A systematic food plan that a dieter must follow for a three-day period.
How It Works: The food combination is supposed to create a “unique metabolic reaction and boost fat burning.”
Downside: The diet is not conducive to a good eating habit and a healthy lifestyle – the very core of weight control. Reverting to normal eating after three days promotes the undesirable yo-yo dieting – losing weight and gaining it right back again.

South Beach Diet
Philosophy: A Modified Carbohydrate Diet in three phases: Phase 1, dieter has to undergo the stage of eating only high protein and low-fat food; Phase 2, the dieter can add some fruits and alcohol in a measured way with bread, rice and pasta; Phase 3, the dieter is expected to maintain the three phases of the diet with a bit of indulgence.
How It Works: Similar to the Atkins Diet, when the body takes in fewer carbohydrates, it gets its energy by burning fat instead of carbohydrates. The result is weight loss.
Downside: In economically-challenged countries like the Philippines, not all dieters can afford to do the South Beach Diet, much less maintain it.

Healthy Diet

The Natural Diet Methods
The natural diet methods below are whimsically attributed to the Book of Genesis’ Adam and Eve in Paradise or the Garden of Eden. Eve, eating the apple or the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, was the first vegetarian, while Adam, telling Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit but be content to eat all other fruits and maybe some animals in Eden, was the first hunter-gatherer.

South Beach Diet
Philosophy: A Modified Carbohydrate Diet in three phases: Phase 1, dieter has to undergo the stage of eating only high protein and low-fat food; Phase 2, the dieter can add some fruits and alcohol in a measured way with bread, rice and pasta; Phase 3, the dieter is expected to maintain the three phases of the diet with a bit of indulgence.
How It Works: Similar to the Atkins Diet, when the body takes in fewer carbohydrates, it gets its energy by burning fat instead of carbohydrates. The result is weight loss.
Downside: In economically-challenged countries like the Philippines, not all dieters can afford to do the South Beach Diet, much less maintain Vegetarian Diet
Philosophy: Avoid all meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, and the by-products of slaughter, such as gelatine and edible oil or animal fats. A vegetarian lives solely on a diet of grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruits. Theoretically, a person becomes a vegetarian for reasons of conscience, arguing the ethical implications of cruelty and killing of animals for food.
How It Works: The diet is low in fats, high in dietary fibre and complex carbohydrate, and high in protective minerals and vitamins – best way to lose weight.
Downside: It is said that to become a vegetarian is a matter of vocation before it becomes a choice. With that, it takes formidable will to be always faithful to your calling and live solely on grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruits. Many doubt this method for its dietary limitations.t.

Paleo Diet
Philosophy: You eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full. But this method, involving food that is edible raw and not organically produced, was easily available only to the early hunter-gatherers. All other food sources are to be avoided.
How It Works: There is no record of an obesity crisis in the hunter-gatherers period in history; that’s how effective this diet is. Scientifically speaking, all the food included in the Paleo Diet is highly rich in natural nutrients and minerals, which are lacking in agricultural food products.
Downside: With all the emerging big agribusinesses controlling food supplies, it’s very hard to maintain the Paleo Diet.