Nutrition and Dietary AdviceNutrition and dietary advice from a professional

Following on from Part 1 of ‘Diets - Positive Programs or Humbug Hype’? here is Part 2 for your cogitation!

1) They fail to address the emotional aspect of overeating

How many times have you binged as an emotional response to a certain situation? Many people eat to help deal with emotional problems such as stress, rather than because they’re hungry. This is normal, however it becomes a major problem when people continually turn to food for emotional comfort or to cope with negative feelings like anger or loss. Dieting can never solve the problem of ‘emotional’ eating.

If anything, it will often make you feel even more depressed due to the guilt associated with overindulging. If there are emotional aspects going on in our lives we need to address these before we even consider going on a diet! Ask yourself “Am I really ready to change my behaviour?”

Writing down our thoughts is the first step to changing them, therefore you may want to try keeping a food and thoughts diary; this will help you to find out if you are eating in response to hunger, or to an emotional situation.

2) They fail to cause change in core eating habits

Those who have successfully made permanent changes to their eating and exercise habits are those who will be successful in losing weight, keeping it off permanently and ultimately being healthier as a result.

The support of our family is key! It will be difficult to continue if our family members maintain an unhealthy lifestyle, as there will be many temptations to eating unhealthy foods. Success is determined by those around us, therefore surround yourself with healthy, happy, positive people and you will be ten times more likely to succeed!

So, what am I really saying? Well, I merely wanted to give you some “food for thought” in the meantime and cause you to think about some of the issues raised!

For many individuals a dietary plan is the way forward, and I don’t wish to tar all healthy eating plans with the same brush. However, I feel we ought to be very careful in our choice, and be sure that we are actually learning about healthy eating, rather than following a quick fix plan.

Please let me know what your thoughts are regarding this! I’d love to hear your individual success stories too.

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You may also like to read the following:

• Diets - Positive Programs or Humbug Hype? (Part 1)
• How Healthy is your Diet?
• How to Overcome Overeating