No Dieting please, We are Indians!. Review on Tips on Having a Balanced Diet

Are you dieting?

If the answer is yes, then, you need to read my advice with a little more than casual interest. It can help you from torturing your body, for little gain.

I have never dieted in my life, and I don’t intend to in the future. My weight has always been commensurate with my height, which is how it should be. I eat everything on the table without being stressed about the consequences. Before you start getting any ‘unhealthy’ ideas, let me qualify my statement. I eat everything that is healthy and has an element of fibre in it.

I have many friends in my circle who, unfortunately had this ‘overweight’ problem. Dieting was a fad and people unabashedly discussed it as if it was some upmarket fashionable thing to do. There is so much of misinformation regarding dieting that it becomes difficult to pick the right thing to do. Even medical scientists didn’t exactly understand what dieting does to the body, that is, until recent times.

Dieting was the result of psychological decisions, not necessarily correct. People who were obese, or overweight often reacted to low self esteem, body shaming and depression. They took to dieting on the rebound, with a vengeance, and got trapped in a vicious circle. Dieting did nothing for them except give them a certain satisfaction that they were doing something about their obesity. Today, we are beginning to understand what dieting actually does to our body.

Dieting isn’t the best solution in the world:

Dieting leads to constipation. Constipation is not good for you as it tends to concentrate carcinogen rich toxins in your bowels or intestinal tracts, if neglected it can lead to the most dreaded disease of our times, Cancer, and that isn’t good news for you. Your best bet is to consume more un-skinned vegetables and fruits, which generally pack more fibre. The key word is ‘fibre’, look for foods which aren’t processed or refined and have sufficient fibre in them.

Dieting gives you, if at all; only short-term results and even these results at most are misleading. In addition, breaking the diet regimen can cause psychological problems like personal guilt and reduced self-esteem as if you’ve been in some way unfaithful to your own resolutions.

The external implications of dieting are that you make life difficult for your family members who are forced to bear with your singular eating habits. It isn’t the most conducive atmosphere if you want to be friendly with your family members. Dieting has always led to frustrations, either in you or in your family members. Not good if you want to lead a happy family life.

Low daily calories are not necessarily a good thing. Your body would be starved of the daily requirements of proteins and vitamins. Dieting makes you weak, not fit.

Dieting to lose weight seldom works in your favour. Losing weight is at the expense of your own body. It leads to digesting your own body tissues instead of food because your body does not know which parts it need to digest or which parts it needs to save. Hence, dieting can be counterproductive, and dangerous.

Further, excessive dieting for long periods can lead to muscle loss from any part of your body including your heart. This can lead to severe consequences, which could be avoided in the first place.

Your body, sometimes, works in peculiar ways. When on diet, the body tends to believe it is starving and reacts by actually saving fat, as fat is energy. It can lead to the onset of diabetes.

Dieting can lead to changes in body chemistry. The effects can be internal as well as external. It can reflect on your face, giving you a famished look, as well as lead to bad breath.

The effects of dieting are mostly negative. It makes you obsessed with food, and this craving can lead to breaking your own rules. You tend to follow it up with binge eating.

Those who are addicted to smoking, gutka, or any other habit tend to over compensate in trying to keep their mind off food. This can lead to drastic consequences like lung, throat, or mouth cancer.

Psychologically, we tend to regard food as a reward or compensation. As a result, we invariably look for occasions where we don’t feel guilty in ‘comfort eating’. A birthday, wedding, or any kind of celebration in the family is all it takes for us to unwind. And then, follows the inevitable depression.

Good, healthy eating doesn’t mean dieting, and neither the reverse is true. Starving yourself or limiting yourself to a pre meditated number of calories is not an effective way of managing your body requirements.

So, if you are contemplating dieting, throw that idea out of the window. You would be better off eating normal, than dieting. Though obesity has its problems, by no means dieting is a solution.

Dieting is popular because of the short-term results it gives. However, in the long haul, all your efforts at dieting will serve no purpose whatsoever.

Further, you may actually end up with more health complications than before.

mbfarookh ©