Why nutrition and not diet

While it is true that diets can lead to positive changes and that they can bring something good, I would argue that diets are not the best nor the healthiest way of looking at food. Diets carry a certain approach to thinking and this approach is riddled with issues which will be the main talking points of this post.

If you are on a diet, then after a certain period of time you will no longer be on a diet and you will return to your old habits which brought about the need for dieting in the first place. This fact is so painfully obvious if you just look at the terminology used when talking about diets – “I am on a diet” or “my diet lasts 10 more weeks, then we feast” or whatever the chrono diet people say. This way of thinking simply doesn’t exist if we’re talking about nutrition because nutrition isn’t something you’re on, rather it is something that you are. Nutrition is a combination of habits which will work for life, and if you ask me, health in the long run is the correct choice. Instead of dieting, which is just a bandage, a temporary solution if you will, you should divert your efforts to building new, healthy habits which will replace the old and in doing so improve your health. After all, we are walking sets of habits.

The second issue with diets is the fact that they have a deadline. Usually, diets are short-term, and it couldn’t be any different because of how restrictive diets are. Here we see the collision of two concepts: effectiveness and sustainability. Most diets yield fantastic results quickly which leads to the stage of stagnation which repels people back into their old habits. Yes, diets are effective, but only for a short period which automatically means that they are not sustainable. Restriction is a huge problem because it takes away the freedom of choice and it forces you to think about things you cannot eat which causes stress and often leads to cracks in mental fortitude. Your willpower is drained, your adherence to the diet suffers as a result and you overeat on the forbidden foods.

The third aspect of diets that bothers me is the fact that people praise and celebrate elements of diets as if they were magical. Example number 1: If you eat specific food and at a specific time you will magically lose weight and improve health. Example number 2: If you almost completely eliminate a certain food group that will cause you to lose weight. In both examples diets receive undue credit. Every single diet, every form of feeding your body which will lead to weight loss works in the same way, based on the same principle, and that is a negative energy balance also known as a calorie deficit. In plain terms, if you eat less than you need you will lose weight regardless of what you eat and when you eat.

The last issue doesn’t have anything to do with diets directly, rather it is connected to the people promoting them. Namely, one of the most common motives to promote a diet is the fact that the diet in question worked for the person promoting it. Now, that diet might be effective, but it might not be the best option for you because it will not be adjusted to your needs, your budget, your preferences which means that it is not an optimal solution which ultimately leads to issues outlined above. Whenever you hear someone say that there is only one way and one way only to approach nutrition and that all other methods are bad, you should immediately turn and run away as fast as you possibly can. Another reason, a lot more sinister in its nature, for promoting diets and products associated with dieting is financial gain which often means that the person will lie to you for a quick buck. Their primary (and possibly only) goal is to make money off of you, they are not interested in keeping you healthy.

Per usual, here’s a brief summary, this time in 5 points:

1. Nutrition is the correct option because it deals with your habits and constitutes your everyday routine and it lasts for life which runs in stark contrast to diets which are only temporary fixes
2. Diets are too restrictive and that is a big reason why they are not sustainable. It forbids specific types of food which cannot be maintained in the long run
3. There is no magic diet, no magic food, no magic potion, nor a magic time of day when you should eat. Also, there’s no magic number of meals
4. Do not take advice from people who do not have your well-being and your long-term health as their PRIMARY interest
5. Read this text to find out what the scientific literature says about eating healthy and a healthy diet looks like.