Nutrition must be adapted to the person's state of health. Various diseases affect biological processes in the body, so it is necessary to change the need for nutrients. Diet programs are used to achieve these changes. Diet is an integral part of therapeutic nutrition prescribed by a doctor, which influences the course of the disease, recovery, elimination of obesity and excess body weight.
Diet: what is it (therapeutic diets, weight loss diets)?
"Diet (from the Greek diaita, Δίαιτα) is the controlled consumption of food and liquids, aimed at achieving a specific purpose. The term "diet" can be used in different ways: hospital (official) diets, weight loss programs, maintain or change health, long-term dietary systems (supported by a lifestyle or philosophy)" This is how the wiki describes the diet (Wikipedia. org).
Principles of dietary nutrition:
- use of high quality raw materials;
- reduction of heat treatment of products;
- reduce the consumption of hot spices;
- increase consumption of greens (dill, parsley, lemon instead of vinegar);
- depending on the disease - increase/decrease of some nutrients;
- regular meals (5 times a day, for diabetes - 6 times a day);
- emphasis on the taste of food - increased appetite in patients.
Diet is a broad concept. The diet program as such does not imply starvation or sudden changes that lead to worsening of the condition.
Types of diets
The goal of changing your diet may be to lose weight: Many nutritional programs are focused on weight loss. This term refers to the circuits best known to the public. The next reason for observing dietary restrictions is the presence of diseases. Such programs are prescribed by doctors; It is not recommended to follow them independently, without making a diagnosis (especially by an unhealthy person). Other dietary goals are more specific. They include improving the quality of hair, nails and skin. There are also diets for building, strengthening muscle mass, food programs for general improvement of immunity, etc.
Diets are associated with detoxifying the body. This is also a change in diet, a restriction, but short-term.
Medical diets (tables)
In the presence of an illness it is important to ensure not only the technological preparation of the diet, but also professional contact with the patient. Even in the context of dietary changes, a person should be able to make food choices in consultation with a nutritionist.
What is a diet in medical terms? Today, the classification of diet programs (tables) usually looks like this:
- NPO (N) - hunger strike.
- 0S - tea room. Tea, unsweetened or sweetened. Prescribed to patients who are unable to take food orally.
- No. 2: Kind. Recommended for patients with gastrointestinal disorders and acute vascular diseases.
- No. 3: a simple and rational diet. Respect adult patients and older children who do not require dietary restrictions.
- 4S - low fat. Prescribed for acute pancreatitis, inflammation of the gallbladder during the transition to oral food intake.
- No. 4 - low fat. Recommended for chronic diseases of the liver, pancreas and gallbladder (usually after transition from the more severe 4S).
- No. 5 - without residue. Observed for disorders in the lower gastrointestinal tract.
- No. 6: Low protein. Suitable for patients with chronic renal failure.
- No. 8 - low-calorie. Prescribed to obese people who do not need delicate nutritional adjustments, patients with hyperlipoproteinemia, type 1 and type 2 obesity (the diet contains more than 5000 kJ per day, so compliance with the diet is relatively easy).
- No. 9 - diabetic. Recommended for patients with diabetes.
- 9S - gentle for diabetics. Diabetic version of a gentle diet.
- No. 10 - unsalted. It is usually not part of the nutritional system, since all diets involve cooking food without adding salt (the finished dish is salted as needed).
- No. 11 - nourishing. Intended for patients with increased energy needs and body weight gain.
- No. 12 - newborn. If necessary, prescribed to children aged 1, 5 and 3 years.
- No. 13 - children's room. Suitable for ages 3 to 15.
- Gluten-free: A gluten-free diet. Intended for patients suffering from gluten intolerance (celiac disease).
- Low phosphorus dialysis diet. Observed in patients undergoing hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.
Today, vegetarian diet options also exist.
The most popular diets for losing weight
A low-energy diet is a nutritional program aimed at reducing body weight, which is an important method for treating overweight and obesity. Its most common purpose is to eliminate excess fat. An effective diet plan for losing weight should evenly reduce the fat tissue in the body. But it is often observed by people (especially girls) who are not overweight, but feel the need to lose weight due to fashion dictates about exhaustion.
Weight loss can be caused not only by the loss of fat, but also water and muscle. Therefore, there is no direct relationship between fat content and body weight. Muscle loss during weight loss can be reduced through exercise and proper food choices. An incorrect diet represents a danger to your health. It can also have the opposite effect (after weight loss fat deposits form again - the so-called "yo-yo effect").
People need nutrients: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, water. Essential amino acids (protein components) are important for the production of cells, especially muscle cells. Essential fatty acids are involved in the formation of brain cells. Vitamins and minerals are essential for many functions. The total amount of energy varies depending on the age of the person. For adults, the optimal intake is 1200–1500 kcal/day.
Among the most famous diet programs for losing weight are the following meal plans.
The Ducan diet
This is a weight loss diet published by the French nutritionist Dr. Pierre Dukan in the book "I can't lose weight". It is based on 4 phases of different duration:
- first - 2-10 days;
- second - 14 days;
- third - depending on the number of kilograms lost (1 kg = 10 days of the third phase);
- the fourth - constantly.
Each stage has allowed and prohibited products. The scheme develops from the most intense phase (only foods containing proteins are consumed) to the last phase (everything is consumed by observing a protein day once a week). A necessary part of the weight loss process is the diet.
Box diet
This nutritional program is based on consuming food in limited quantities, but more often.
The canned diet works on the principle of regular dosing of food. His goal is to get used to eating small amounts of food at regular intervals, without overeating, and to eat large portions 3 times a day.
Paleolithic diet
The Paleolithic program, also called the Paleo diet or Stone Age diet, is often referred to as a lifestyle. A person following a Paleo diet is close to the supposed diet of prehistoric man during the Paleolithic, the longest period in human history, which lasted about 3 million years. During this period people did not know agriculture; they obtained food by hunting and gathering. But the hunter-gatherer diet was and remains high in calories. It also contains more carbohydrates than the average modern diet.
Proponents of this dietary model suggest that human digestion is not evolutionarily adapted to agricultural products (cereals, dairy products).
Therefore, when following a paleo diet, agricultural products are excluded or limited from the diet:
- cereals;
- legumes;
- bread;
- milk;
- cheese;
- semi-finished products, etc.
The menu consists mainly of meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, nuts, eggs. It also includes fats (avocado, coconut, olive oil, lard).
Breuss Diet
The Breuss diet is a nutritional program named after its author, Rudolf Breuss, an Austrian electrician and healer (sometimes called a doctor, but he never studied at a specialized university). This diet was originally a method of alternative medicine that offered a cure for cancer. Its essence lies in the "tumor hunger", its life only from the solid component of food.
Due to the side effect of weight loss, the Breuss diet began to be used to eliminate excess weight.
It consists of 42 days of abstaining from solid food. Only selected vegetable juices and herbal teas are drunk. The juice is produced industrially from organically grown vegetables. It can be prepared at home, but the industrial juice is sterilized and, in addition to the plant components, contains lactic acid bacteria.
Protein diet
Also known as the "protein", "cyclic ketogenic", "ketone" or "keto" diet. This is a scientifically proven method that produces good weight loss results in just a few weeks. Dr. Russell Wilder used it for medical purposes as early as 1921. The father of its modern version can be considered Professor George L. Blackburn, who studied the burning of stored fat by the human body.
With conventional forms of weight loss, the body can lose up to 40% of its muscle mass. But muscles are the main fat burners. As a result, after the end of dietary restrictions, the metabolism is no longer able to cope with the amount of energy present in the diet before the change in diet. A yo-yo effect occurs. Professor Blackburn identified the state of ketosis and the possibility of its activation in the organism. The main advantage of him is weight loss by burning stored fat and preserving muscle mass, while minimizing the risk of the yo-yo effect.
Mayer's diet
This is a weight loss technique developed by Dr. Franz Xavier Mayer. It consists of limiting the consumption of calories, proteins, fats, fruit and vegetables. Dry hard bread is consumed with water. Chewing bread causes increased salivation, which improves digestion. Drinking causes diarrhea, which removes harmful deposits from the body.
Today the popularity of this method is decreasing (for obvious reasons).
Separate food
This scheme is based on the assumption that proteins require an acidic environment in the stomach, while carbohydrates require an alkaline environment. Therefore, protein foods should not be consumed at the same time as carbohydrate-containing foods. This helps prevent the neutralization of digestive juices, thus avoiding disruption of the digestive process. Once neutralized, neither fats nor proteins can be broken down effectively; carbohydrates ferment and proteins rot, producing toxic residues.
Therefore, separate feeding is not a diet as such. This is a change in lifestyle, an adjustment in diet. Its basis is a combination of proteins and neutral foods or carbohydrates and neutral foods (or the consumption of only neutral foods). It is also important to maintain a regular diet and consume food in smaller portions. By reducing energy consumption, separate meals also serve as a method for weight loss.
IMPORTANT! Informative article! Before use, you should consult a specialist.