Healthy eating is not about restricting one’s diet or depriving oneself of foods you love. Rather, eating healthy is about feeling your best, having more energy and improving your mood and lifting your confidence. If you, as a woman, feel conflicted by all the information available to you about diets, take heart and know you aren’t alone. It seems everywhere you turn, there are experts touting a certain diet plan, lauding that a certain food is better for you than others and upon further examination, these claims are found to be inaccurate.
Here, we will attempt to cut through which diet plans are safe and effective, allowing you to make an informed decision about which one could work for you.
Best Diets For Women
The Weight Watchers Points Program was first launched in 2010 and it gives an assigned point value to every food, based on its protein, fat, fiber and carbohydrate content. Food choices that fill you up the longest are ranked least in point value, while nutritionally sound foods cost less than empty, non-nutrient foods. Women on Weight Watchers can eat whatever they want, because no food is off limits and there is flexibility that allows you to shape your own customized plan.
The goal of the DASH diet, meanwhile, is to prevent and lower high blood pressure. A healthy eating pattern is important to bringing down high blood pressure and it provides important nutrients like protein, fiber, potassium and calcium all of which are imperative for lowering blood pressure. The diet encourages consuming vegetables, whole grains, fruits, lean protein and low-fat dairy, while avoiding high-calorie process foods, sweets and fatty red meats.
Because heart disease in women is so common, the TLC diet could be ideal for females seeking to lower their LDL cholesterol levels. Thie TLC diet, short for Therapeutic Lifestyle Diet, was created by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cholesterol Education Program. The American Heart Association endorses the diet as a heart-healthy plan that can help anyone reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease.
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The goal of the Mayo Clinic Diet is weight loss, most people will lose six to 10 pounds within two weeks and continue losing an average of one to two pounds each week until their goal weight is achieved. The premise of this diet is to recalibrate eating habits and replace bad habits with good ones using the Mayo Clinic food pyramid as a guideline. The Mayo Pyramid and the Mayo Clinic Diet Book will help guide a person through using the diet and learning healthy food choices which will lead to weight loss. No food group is off limits, but developing healthy eating habits and observing portion control are the keys to successfully losing and maintaining weight loss.
Whole Food Diets For Women
The Supercharged Hormone Diet helps regulate hormones while aiding in weight loss and keeping it off. Hormonal imbalances are common in females, and it happens because of age, stress and environmental toxins. Having high levels of stress hormones such as cortisol will lead to uncontrollable appetite surges. This diet will begin with a two-week detox period, which is designed to remove excess hormones like estrogen and cortisol from the body. For the next two weeks, an individual will gradually bring certain foods back into their diet, in order to find out which ones can be tolerated and which ones cannot be.
By the end of the four week period, a person will begin to follow the Glyci-Mediterranean Diet. This portion of the plan focuses on foods that will help the person maintain stable blood sugar levels and incorporating foods that are low in carbs.
The goal of the macrobiotic diet is disease prevention and to give a person the best health possible. This diet claims it can help a person ward off diseases and live a longer, healthier life. Food is easily one of the most influential components to our health, and only when a person finds the right kind of eating pattern, long-term health be achieved. The perfect eating plan places the emphasis on eating whole, balanced foods that will put the body in harmony. The Macrobiotic diet isn’t actually a “diet” at all, but more about eating the foods that make your body feel better.
Women who try this diet can expect to feel healthier and more energetic, and it is not unusual for the number on the scale to go down either.
Before You Start Dieting...
It does not matter if you are a woman trying to lose weight or just want to adopt healthier eating habits, before making any changes to your diet you should first consult with your medical doctor or healthcare professional to ensure it is safe. By eating healthy foods and having a balanced diet, you can experience better health, avoid certain health conditions, reduce your chances for diseases, lose weight and reap all the benefits of a better lifestyle.
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"We are what we eat," is a saying we have all heard at some point or another, but it is really true. As a woman, you have certain nutritional requirements and nutrient needs that must be met on a daily basis. By finding out which diet plan will work best for you, it is possible to lose weight and become the best version of "you" that you can be.
Sources & Links
- Photo courtesy of Butz.2013 via Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/61508583@N02/10873662993
- Photo courtesy of Jose C Silva via Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/josecamoessilva/9920331173