Weight loss: Follow a diet which allows you to eat local and seasonal food
Highlights
- Sustaianble diets offer weight loss results in the long term
- They show health improvement results almost instantly
- They come with fewer side effects like digestion problems and mood swings
Weight loss: Choosing the right kind of diet for yourself maybe your gateway to good health. There may not be just one answer to the question of which diet may be best suitable for you. According to celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar, the kind of diet that you should follow should be in sync with your locality, culture, season and tradition. If you eat in this pattern, it can ensure there's diversity in your diet and that you have little or no nutritional deficiencies. In one of her recent IGTVs, Diwekar elaborates further on how to make the right diet choice that not just offers weight loss, but other health benefits as well.
Weight loss: Making the right diet choice- What you need to know
Diets like keto, Atkins, intermittent fasting, low carb high fat diet etc are unsustainable in nature. They may offer weight loss results in the short term, but may also end up increasing the amount of health issues you faced before starting with these diets. These may include digestion issues like constipation, acidity and bloating, and increased body pain, knee pain, back pain etc.
Also read: Weight Loss: If You Have Stopped Losing Weight On Keto Diet, This Is What You Should Know
The other downside of these diets, as per Diwekar, is that their focus is on looking at food in terms of carbs, proteins, fats and calories. Whereas, one should look at food according to locality, culture, season and tradition. This means that you should eat food which is locally grown and is readily available in your area; food which has been part of your culture for generations; one which is currently in season and is eaten traditionally during different times of the year.
Eat foods according to your locality, culture and season for sustainable weight loss
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What's more, these fad diets restrict intake of major food groups like carbs and fats, and even recommend going low on calories, which can end up increasing your cravings, mood swings and irritability.
Also read: Carbs Or Calories: What Should You Focus On For Weight Loss? Experts Reveal
Sustainable diets, on the other hand, may not offer weight loss benefits in the short term. However, they begin showing improvement in health almost instantly. You start feeling fitter, lighter, in a better mood and have better digestion. Weight loss with this eating pattern is comparatively slower, but definitely more sustainable. In the long term, your weight will reduce and health will improve consistently and irreversibly, says Diwekar.
The diet that you need to follow needs to be local, seasonal and traditional as explained above. You don't need to deprive yourself and do intuitive eating. To follow this diet, you need to eat home-cooked food most of the time, avoid anything that comes in a packet, cook your favourite comfort food at home (instead of ordering or eating out food outside), practice portion control, eat seasonal specialities guilt-free and cook food by following traditional cooking methods.
Also read: This Is The Best Time To Eat Carbs If You Want To Lose Weight Quickly
(Rujuta Diwekar is a nutritionist based in Mumbai)
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