I generally am pretty neutral when a client comes to me with a specific diet that they are interested in trying. Why? Because different people respond well to different styles of eating and I’m not here to judge, I’m here to help. You want to be a vegan? Great, let’s figure it out. Want to go gluten-free? Delightful, let’s make a plan. Different people find motivation in varying places, and I’m happy–not just happy, but eager to help someone figure that out..BUT, I always, always ALWAYS advocate that no matter how you are eating, it should be real food. You can cut out bread, dairy, meat, desserts, snacks, what-have-you so long as you are eating real food. That’s why I was amazed (even a little appalled) when I read “US News & World Reports Best Diets of 2017.” I’m sure some of you have read it, and others maybe not, but long story short, the DASH diet (a way of eating designed to stop hypertension) came in first and the Whole30 (real food but omits dairy, grains, alcohol, additives for 30 days) came in last at #38. I personally, have seen the Whole30 works wonders for people, and there’s nothing dangerous about it, but fine fine, omitting whole groups of foods isn’t what the authors wanted to see. But, my biggest problem is with all the diets in between first and last place like Jenny Craig, which came in at #10, Nutrisystem at #16, and Slim Fast at #20 (just to name a few). Seriously? Here is a screen shot from US News and World Report’s “sample menu” for someone on the Jenny Craig diet:
SERIOUSLY?? A “chocolate dream shake” for breakfast with a “philly cheesesteak sandwich” for lunch???? You are going to be needing the DASH diet after this processed food disaster.
I feel like this sample menu is single-handedly pointing out the health-crisis that our country is in. WE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO EAT AND EAT REAL FOODS. Not to have the nice scientists at the Jenny Craig laboratory create a pre-packaged, calorie-conscious, triple chocolate cheesecake. I would rather you eat a piece of real cheesecake, that you made, from scratch, with all the fat than this.
You want one of their philly cheesteak sandwiches? Well here is what the nice scientists at Jenny Craig have put in it:
Having trouble reading that? Yeh, me too, the list is long and tiny but don’t worry, it’s only 270 calories.
And, according to this report, it would be far worse, and more nutritionally detrimental to your health, to make yourself a steak, with onions and peppers because you aren’t including the roll.
Again, I’m not saying one way of eating is better than the other, but my friend and colleague, Diana Rodgers wrote a pretty kick-ass response to the report’s villainization of the Whole30 and Paleo diets:
I get people in my office all the time saying how confusing the nutrition information out there is and it is! I’m in the nutrition field and it’s horrifyingly confusing because of reports like this one that then get broadcast to more popular and mainstream sources like People magazine. I rarely pay attention to stories like such as these, but this report is going to do more than confuse a lot of people—it’s going to exacerbate the health and obesity crisis in this country because people are going to believe it. The goal of nutrition is healthy eating, which for me means eating healthy. And real foods are healthy foods. Period.
