Want to eat healthy? Well, there is no dearth of diets to choose from. However, much of it can be quite confusing too. Here’s a list that will settle the doubts in your quest to find a diet that suits your needs or goals and seems feasible.
The alkaline diet seeks to reduce the effects of foods that increase acidity levels in the blood when digested. The programme claims to rebalance the body through a diet comprising two-thirds alkalizing foods (like green vegetables) and one-third acidifying foods (meat, cheese). Alkaline dieters can eat carbohydrate, protein and fat, but the focus is firmly on raw, seasonal produce, green vegetables and fruit.
Chrono nutrition is based on the idea of respecting the body’s natural rhythms. Followers can eat what they like, but only at fixed times of day. So rather than cutting out certain foods, this diet — developed by French nutritionist Dr Delabos — puts different food groups in different meals. The day starts with a hearty breakfast including animal fats, followed by a dense, protein- and carb-based lunch, a sweet snack in the afternoon and a light meal in the evening to prevent excess calories being stored overnight. Dark chocolate is allowed every day, but not after 5pm.
A detox is more of a short-term programme than a long-term diet. Detoxing aims to flush toxins out of the body. This generally takes around a week, and often starts with a phase of around three days where detoxers eat just one kind of food, usually with unlimited fruit, and lots of water and herbal teas. Cooked vegetables are progressively reintroduced, followed by protein (meat, fish, eggs) over the last two days.
Developed by an Australian nutritionist in 2005 for sufferers of irritable bowel syndrome, this eating program involves avoiding a family of carbohydrates called FODMAPs. FODMAPS are types of sugars that are poorly absorbed by the body. These are naturally present in certain vegetables, cereals, pulses, fruit, mushrooms, dairy products and certain “low sugar” products. Eating FODMAPs can lead to bloating and stomach ache after meals, as the sugars ferment in the intestine. Fruits allowed as part of the diet include bananas, grapes, grapefruit, kiwis, mandarins, oranges, passion fruit, pineapple and tomatoes.
