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Camryn Ashton-Marie Valencia

English 1302 - 53007

Professor Deva

April 19, 2018

The Modern-Day Weight Loss Diet

There is a sea of fad weight loss diets that come and go year in and year out.

As well as diets that have stuck around for over 50 years now, although does that

mean it is the best for the majority? It can be overwhelming trying to decipher

which diet is right for us in order to lose weight and keep it off. There are plenty of

weight loss diets that claim it will give us the weight loss results we want in a short

amount of time. The key though is to find out which diet will cause us to lose

weight sustainably while having positive effects on our health. Fortunately, my

research has led me to find the diet with the most evidence proving it will increase

life expectancy, prevent chronic disease and be while causing us to consistently

lose weight. Many diets can give us rapid weight loss results, although, the

Mediterranean diet is the healthy and sustainable modern-day approach to weight

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loss because it is unrestricted, prevents chronic disease and follows closely to the

Federal Government’s Dietary Guidelines.

Every few years an abundant amount of research goes into creating the ideal

dietary guideline for Americans developed by the Federal Government. Most

recently created was the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines developed (Chapter 1 Key

Elements of Healthy Eating Patterns.) It is a standard idea of what an American

diet should consist of, obviously contrary to the Standard American Diet. The

guidelines were created “for professionals to help Americans make healthy choices

in their daily lives to help prevent chronic disease and enjoy a healthy diet

(ODPHP 2015.)” However, these are just guidelines that create a standard for a

healthy way of eating. Therefore, the diet we choose to follow with a specific goal

to lose weight should somewhat parallel with the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines.

Otherwise, it is most likely doing more harm than it is good for our health even if it

does advertise rapid weight loss results. “The Mediterranean diet closely conforms

to the Federal Government's 2015 Dietary Guidelines. Many experts described it as

a healthful, nutritionally sound approach to eating. (U.S. News & World Report.)”
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The Mediterranean diet has been a way of eating in the countries bordering the

Mediterranean sea long before the most current Dietary Guidelines were made. It

still poses a threat to many other recently created modern-day diets that claim to

benefit our health but have no science-based evidence to prove it, nor do they come

close to being similar to the Dietary Guidelines.

Weight Watchers is a weight loss program that has been around for over

fifty years. It has stood the test of time by consistently improving its program.

Even recently it was ranked as number one for short-term weight loss by the U.S.

News & World Report after being compared to thirty-seven other diets (U.S. News

& World Report.) Over the fifty years, Weight Watchers has stayed relevant by

updating the way they incorporate technology into their program. Recently the

program introduced “SmartPoints” that keep track of the what and how much food

we intake. Members of the program are to download the app and the program onto

their phones so that they are able to plug in their daily intake of food. Each

member is allowed to eat up to 200 SmartPoints daily. A salad being 0 points and a

cheeseburger being worth 10 points. “If you don't like counting calories, you may
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not like counting SmartPoints either (Scott 2009).” This could be ideal for some,

although many people have dropped previous diets due to having to count and

weigh any food they plan to eat, making sure it fits in there daily macros and

micros. Having to track every bite you take before you take it is time-consuming

for the average working American. It can also become obsessive or stressful for

some and create a bad relationship with food. Weight Watchers is restrictive with

how much food members are allowed to consume in a day, although not restricted

to what food members are allowed to eat or not eat. It seems like it encourages

members to eat healthier because the healthier the food, the smaller amount of

SmartPoints the food is worth. However it also encourages members to eat

whatever junk food their hearts desire as long as it stays under a certain number, it

is possible to still lose weight. “Weight Watchers promotes junk food like candy,

pizza, and fries – as long as they are within your daily points, eat as much as you

like (Stephanie 2012).” And it works, as long as members continue to log their

food and stay under the magic number, they see results every week they weigh in.

Members just do what the points say they can or can not do and that is the problem
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with this diet. It teaches members to eat junk food in extreme moderation and does

not teach them a healthy way of living. “Members eat small portions of

nutrient-poor junk food daily as ‘treats,’ therefore never losing their addictive

cravings (Fuhrman 2016).” The members are those who pay every month to be

apart of the program. “If you sign up for the six-month plan, the total cost is

$229.68. After six months, you will automatically get billed the standard monthly

fee of $44.95 (Scott 2009.)” Unless those members continue paying the standard

monthly fee for the rest of their life, then they will no longer be able to depend on

SmartPoints to restrict their eating. This method of dieting has negative long-term

effects on health and is counterproductive for sustainable weight loss.

The Atkins diet is similar to the Ketogenic diet in that is promotes the intake

of very low amounts of carbohydrates. “Low-carbohydrate diets like the Atkins

Diet are popular for rapid weight loss, but the long-term consequences remain the

subject of debate (Nilsson 12)“ The Atkins diet is much less concerned with people

diagnosed with an illness and much more concerned with their followers achieving

the weight loss goals they want. However, a large number of people needing to
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lose weight as fast as possible are patients diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

Therefore, before a diet is being promoted to the public as a new fab, it should be

proven safe for anybody with diabetes. It is proven to have negative impacts on

consumers with diabetes. Among the expert that dissect the effects of this diet,

“one panelist observed that the high level of saturated fat intake on the diet can

hike the risk of insulin resistance, a hallmark of Type 2 diabetes (U.S. News &

World Report.)“

The ketogenic diet is an extremely low-carbohydrate diet, moderate protein

restrictions but encourages a high amount of fat consumption. It was designed to

wean our bodies off of using carbohydrates as a primary energy source. It, in turn,

trains our bodies to use our stored fat for fuel, this process is known as ketosis.

Therefore, the Ketogenic diet is highly restrictive because many foods we are used

to incorporating into our daily lives are off-limits in order to enter into to Ketosis.

Even foods that have been proven to be beneficial to our health, such as most

fruits, whole grains, and legumes, are not allowed while on the Ketogenic diet. The

diet is not restrictive to foods that will benefit our health, it is restrictive to foods
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that will get us to lose weight rapidly. “People in a 2014 Spanish study who

followed a very-low-calorie ketogenic diet lost an average of 44 pounds in a

year—but a third of them dropped out (MOHR 102.)” The Ketogenic diet has been

proven to be effective for short-term weight loss results. However, while on this

diet our bodies go in and out of ketosis, which causes harmful effects on our

health. “Because of the "cycling" nature of the diet, taking breaks and then starting

it again, experts also warn that hormones could fluctuate (LaMotte 2018.)” Our

bodies are not designed to run on stored fat, therefore it is disruptive to our internal

when starting and stopping this diet, so much so that experts say that this diet could

put many different groups of people's health at risk. According to a U.S. News

article “Pregnant or nursing women, underweight people, women with a history of

eating disorders or anyone with heart disease who hasn’t first consulted a doctor

should avoid the diet (Mukherjee 2018)” The diet has many variables and could

produce harmful outcomes to our health.

Scientist took interest in learning about the diets of people living in many

different countries, although the people living on the coast of the Mediterranean
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Sea stood out because how exceptional their health was compared to the other 6

countries. “A Mediterranean eating pattern was first identified in the 1950s as part

of a study of health and habits in seven countries Greece, Finland, Italy, Japan, the

Netherlands, the United States, and Yugoslavia. One of its most intriguing findings

was that people living in Crete, other parts of Greece, and southern Italy lived

longer and had the lowest rates of heart disease in spite of a high-fat diet and

limited medical care (Harvard 2008.)” There is a huge amount of evidence backing

up the claims made about the benefits of the Mediterranean diet for our weight and

health. The diet has a heavy focus on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and nuts

or legumes. The people of the Mediterranean Sea have a very low intake of red

meat. Fish is their main source of meat protein, although they mainly consume

plant-based proteins and proteins from beans. While preparing dishes, they

incorporate lots of olive oil for fat and replaces the use of salt with spices and

herbs. Packaged, processed or high-carbohydrate foods are out of the question.

Therefore, the diet placed number one for best diet overall according to the U.S.

News & World Report (U.S. News & World Report.) While researching the
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Mediterranean diet, I was unable to find evidence that proves this diet will have

any potential negative effects our health. The Mediterranean diet is commended for

how effective it is for weight loss without consumers needing to keep track of

every bit or calories they are intake. Simply by eating the recommended foods that

this diet entails is enough for consumers to see changes in the mirror. This diet is

ideal to reach the health needs of the majority of consumers, even most with a

chronic disease. Many, many studies have proven this claim by testing how its

helpful or harmful effects on various amounts of different diseases. A study proved

“the Mediterranean diet showed favorable effects on lipoprotein levels,

endothelium vasodilation, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, antioxidant

capacity, myocardial and cardiovascular mortality, and cancer incidence in obese

patients and in those with previous myocardial infarction (Lluís S27–S47.)“ The

Mediterranean diet is miraculous in disease prevention and has proven exceptional

for improvements in cardiovascular disease factors. It is inclusive of all food

groups, therefore is it not incredibly restrive or unstainable. This diet is truly less of
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a diet and more of a lifestyle change because it is exactly the way people living in

the countries along the Mediterranean coast have eaten their whole life.