Exploring Popular Eating Plans
We can’t help it. This time of year, it’s impossible to not make an honest assessment of the year before and consider what steps we might take in the coming year to experience more joy, health, and wellbeing. For many people that means eating healthier, checking our popular diets and looking into some popular eating plans.
In fact, according to Statista, saying yes to greens and less to sugar was among the top three New Year’s resolutions in 2018 tied with getting more exercise and saving money. We have a pretty good idea of what our body needs (more vegetables, more delicious fruits, less processed food), but we couldn’t help but be curious about the bevy of new eating plans gaining attention. Some local grocery stores are even getting behind these trends by labeling foods as friendly to specific diets. To kick off 2018, we explore what’s out there and who it’s right for.
Bulletproof Diet Plan
What is it? Started by Dave Asprey, a tech entrepreneur who spent two decades and over $1 million to hack his own biology, Bulletproof eating touts eating foods that ward off disease and improve mental acuity. You don’t count calories on the Bulletproof diet, though you may drop lbs. and experience sustained energy levels. The diet advocates getting 60 percent of your calories from healthy fats, 20 percent from protein and the remaining 20 percent from vegetables. This was definitely one of the popular diets of 2017.
What do you eat on the Bulletproof Diet? Grass-fed meat, wild-caught fish, avocados, 100-percent dark chocolate, nuts and seeds, grass-fed butter, green vegetables, sweet potatoes, plantains, coffee
What can’t you eat? Legumes (yes, peanut butter), dairy, sugar, most fruit, soy
Who is the Bulletproof Diet for: Omnivores who get excited by the words: pork belly. This diet is heavy on meal prep, so if you don’t enjoy cooking it’d be hard to stick to.
More Bulletproof information here
Keto Diet (Ketogenic Diet)
What is it? Short for Ketogenic, a keto diet is designed to put your body into a state of ketosis, in which it burns fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates. This requires eating very few carbohydrates a day – roughly 20 grams or half of a large hamburger bun or a few bites of pasta. On the Keto diet, it’s suggested that 75 percent of your calories come from healthy fats, 20 percent from animal protein and 5 percent from low-glycemic carbohydrates like leafy greens.
What do you eat on a Keto diet? Grass-fed meat, wild-caught fish, lard, avocado, macadamia nuts, olives, olive oil, coconut oil, beef tallow, some alcohol, nuts and seeds, grass-fed butter, green vegetables, coffee
What can’t you eat? All grains, milk, tropical fruit, sugar, potatoes, vegetable oils, soy
Who is the Ketogenic diet for: This diet is not for the faint of heart. It’s more strict than Bulletproof and also requires significant meal planning and prep. One bonus? Keto-ice cream.
More Keto diet information here
Whole 30
What is it? Perhaps you have friends jumping on the Whole 30 bandwagon? You may even have seen “Whole-30 Approved” signs popping up in your local grocery store for this popular eating plan. Part of this diet’s appeal is that as its name suggests, Whole 30 is a 30-day eating regimen. Give it a try and if you’re feeling good, perhaps adopt some of its guidelines long term. And what are those guidelines? There’s no calorie counting or portioning, just consuming whole unprocessed foods in moderate amounts – which is why this falls into the popular eating plans category.
What do you eat on the Whole 30 diet? Meat, seafood, and eggs; lots of vegetables; some fruit; plenty of natural fats; and herbs, spices, and seasonings
What can’t you eat? Sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, dairy
Who it’s for? If you want to eat healthier and could benefit from some simple guidelines to help you stay on track but don’t want to feel too restricted, this is the eating plan for you.
Deciding Which Of The Popular Eating Plans Is For You
Bottom line, if healthier eating is on your to-do list for 2018, take some time to explore what this truly means to you. Like our individual thumbprints, what foods your body does and does not jive with are individual to you. While a diet can be a great way to kick off a new habit, or discern what’s best for you body, we don’t believe in a silver bullet that works for every body. In general, when it comes to filling our plate, we try to adhere to Michael Pollan’s wise words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
