healthy diets

Diets Decoded: Here’s What You Need to Know About The Volumetrics Diet

We’re going to let you in on a little secret. Most popular healthy diets that are touted for weight loss—from Paleo to Mediterranean and vegetarian—share many of the same basic principles. All involve eating whole foods (as opposed to packaged and processed) and filling your plate with quality sources of protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and vitamin-, mineral-, and fiber-rich vegetables. However, each proposes a slightly different path that leads to fulfilling those principles. In this column, we’ll be breaking them down for you, one by one, so you can figure out which (if any) is right for you. We’ll explain the facts and then provide quick, actionable tips on how to follow the diet as part of a Nutritious Life. If cutting calories isn’t helping you hit your weight loss goals, we’re not surprised. An alternative strategy that might work for some people is eating for volume, which involves including healthy and filling foods with each meal–that just happen to be low in calories. This is called the Volumetrics Diet. Read on to find out how it works, and then decide if it’s right for you or not. What is the Volumetrics Diet? As with any diet, the Volumetrics Diet simply offers one approach to attaining your weight loss and health goals. Not a new diet by any means, this tried-and-true diet, which was created by a nutrition and obesity researcher at Penn State, follows a rather simple principle. By including high-volume (think filling and nutrient-dense), low-calorie foods at each meal, you can keep your calorie intake in check without feeling unsatisfied or deprived. On this diet, you can plan to eat three full meals and two snacks daily, with the option for adding desserts some days–as long as you’re staying within your caloric recommendations. Nothing is off-limits on this eating plan, but there are some foods that you’ll want to limit or avoid. The Volumetrics Four Food Categories Successfully following this plan requires an understanding of its four main categories of foods, with most of your food volume coming from foods in category one, and the least of your foods (if any) coming from category four. The goal is to stay within your unique daily caloric intake recommendations. These categories include: Category 1: Very Low-Density Foods Think non-starchy fruits and vegetables such as berries, melons, cucumbers, asparagus and broth-based soups. These foods can be eaten in higher quantities throughout the day when following this diet because they are high in nutrients and water and low in calories. Pile these on your plate! Category 2: Low-Density Foods These foods include whole grains (brown rice and whole wheat pasta, for example), starchy fruits and vegetables (such as bananas, corn and potatoes), legumes, lean proteins and low-fat dairy products. These foods can be eaten in reasonable quantities, paying careful attention to how they affect your daily caloric intake. Category 3: Medium-Density Foods These foods include full-fat dairy products, meats with higher fat content and breads. These foods can be eaten on the diet, but not as often as foods from categories one and two due to their lower nutrient density and higher caloric density. Category 4: High-Density Foods While there aren’t any foods you can’t eat on the Volumetrics Diet, high-density foods should be limited. These foods contain the fewest nutrients and the highest levels of calories, so you want to avoid them when possible. Some examples of high-density foods include crackers, chips, candy, cookies, (all the highly-processed foods we always think are best avoided!) nuts, butter, and oil. (Technically, alcohol falls into this category, except it really doesn’t offer any nutrients and is full of calories. It’s best to keep this out if you’re really trying to lose weight.) What You Eat on the Volumetric Diet High-volume, low-calorie foods tend to contain higher amounts of water and fiber, so these are the foods you’ll focus on eating the most while on the Volumetrics Diet. Why? Because when you eat foods high in water and fiber, you feel fuller faster, meaning you don’t have to eat as many calories to feel satiated. RELATED: Only 5% of Americans Eat Enough Fiber—Here’s Why You Should Eat More Foods with lower amounts of fiber and water, on the other hand, require you to eat more of them to feel full, regardless of how many calories they contain. Here’s a potential list of foods to include plenty of in your daily meals on this diet: Fresh fruits and fresh or frozen vegetables (especially those high in water and fiber) Beans and legumes (in moderation) Whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal, whole grain bread) Low-fat dairy products (low-fat Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, kefir) Lean meats and proteins (chicken without the skin, lean beef, low-fat fish, egg whites) Water (vs. soda or other sugary drinks) Notice that the medium- and high-density foods aren’t listed here? They aren’t 100% “not allowed,” but the more you eat lower-density foods, the better. What You Don’t Eat on the Volumetrics Diet We’ll repeat it–there are no strict rules around what you “can’t eat” on the Volumetrics Diet, but there are foods you’ll want to avoid or limit if you want to see the weight drop faster. As you can imagine, higher-calorie foods that are low in nutrients shouldn’t take up a lot of room on your plate, but if you must include them, you’ll want to limit them and make sure they fit into your daily calorie goals. Here are some examples of high-calorie and low-volume foods to avoid on the Volumetrics Diet: Full-fat dairy products (full-fat yogurt, sour cream, and cheeses) Fatty meat (regular ground beef, bacon, sausages, chicken with skin) Processed and sweetened foods (cookies, candy, soda, sweetened coffee drinks) Refined foods (white bread, cake, and other baked goods) Sometimes we all need something sweet or that we know isn’t the healthiest option. One thing that works for many people on this diet is that the rules aren’t super strict. So if you really want to have a

From Carb Cycling to Macro Counting: Do These 4 Diets Live Up to Their Weight Loss Claims?

As the new year approaches, we’ve been sharing roundups of our Diets Decoded series, highlighting the pros and cons of some of the most popular (and not-so-known) diets out there. The thing is, most healthy diets—from paleo to Mediterranean to keto—share many of the same basic principles. All involve eating whole foods (as opposed to packaged and processed ones) and filling your plate with quality sources of protein, healthy fats, complex carbs, and vitamin-, mineral-, and fiber-rich vegetables. However, each proposes a slightly different path that leads to fulfilling those principles. “For each individual, the healthiest diet is an approach to eating that fuels your body and mind and fits into your lifestyle,” says Nutritious Life founder Keri Glassman, MS, RD, CDN. “Eating empowered, one of the eight pillars of a Nutritious Life, means listening to your body and focusing on the diverse, delicious, healthy foods you can have rather than what a hard-to-follow diet says you can’t have.” This week’s Diets Decoded roundup takes a look at diets touted specifically for their weight loss abilities. We digest them for you, highlighting their pros and cons, and offering actionable advice and a bottom line. If one of your New Year’s goals is to find an eating plan that helps you lose weight, read on for a rundown on four of today’s most popular weight-loss diets to see if they fit your life as part of a holistic approach to weight loss. 4 Weight-Loss Diets—and Whether They’re Right For You Carb Cycling Diet Think of carb cycling as keto’s more approachable cousin. Instead of abandoning carbs altogether, (which, let’s be real, can be really hard for most people) this adapted way of eating involves cycling between periods of low-carb and high-carb intake. The diet started years ago in the bodybuilding and fitness communities as a way to burn fat and build muscle more efficiently. But now, an increasing number of athletes and trainers have been following it to induce occasional ketosis, while still feeling properly fueled for heavy days at the gym or endurance activities. Others have been touting its potential weight-loss benefits. Wondering if carb cycling might work for you? Read on for our Carb Cycling Diet decoded. CARB CYCLING DIET Sirtfood Diet The Sirtfood Diet promises to help you lose seven pounds in seven days. It made headlines last year after singer Adele said it was the secret to her weight loss. This diet’s foundation rests on research surrounding sirtuins (SIRTs), a family of proteins found in the body that may play a role in metabolism, inflammation, aging and chronic diseases. Certain polyphenols (plant compounds that act as antioxidants) may increase levels of sirtuins in the body. Diet founders, Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten, say they modeled the diet after the eating patterns of “the slimmest, healthiest and longest-lived populations around the world, known as the Blue Zones.” They refer to SIRTs as your body’s natural “skinny genes” and have have named the foods high in these polyphenols as “sirtfoods,” claiming they will activate mechanisms controlled by your body’s SIRTs to burn fat. When combined with calorie restriction, the founders claim your body will produce higher levels of sirtuins, which will result in greater weight loss. Color us intrigued. But, is it safe—and, more importantly, sustainable? We have the Sirtfood Diet decoded. SIRTFOOD DIET Macro Counting Diet You’ve probably heard fitness influencers or healthy eating enthusiasts talk about “counting their macros.” But what does that really mean? Essentially, they are monitoring how many grams (and calories) they consume from the three macronutrients—carbohydrate, protein and fat. The idea is that if you create a calorie deficit and properly proportion how much of each macronutrient you eat in a day, you’ll achieve your desired weight and, at the same time, reach other health goals—including maintaining or building muscle. To calculate your calorie needs and macro proportions, the specific target numbers will depend on sex, age, physical activity and weight and fitness goals, so there’s no one-size-fits-all formula. Curious about counting macros? Here we have Macro Counting decoded. MACRO COUNTING DIET The Dukan Diet Created by Dr. Pierre Dukan, a French doctor who specializes in weight management, the Dukan Diet promises to help you lose weight quickly and permanently, all while being able to eat as much as you like. The Dukan Diet is a high-protein, low-carb and low-fat diet that is divided into four phases. Two phases to help you shed the weight, and two phases that help you keep it off. The length of each phase depends on how much weight you want to lose in order to reach your “true weight,” which the diet describes as the weight you can reach without struggling or restricted eating. Before you start the diet, you’ll need to calculate this true weight using a variety of factors such as age, gender, weight history, and bone structure. Sounds like a dream? We took a deeper dive to decode the Dukan Diet and its pros and cons. (Images: Shutterstock) THE DUKAN DIET

From Candida to Hashimoto’s: 5 Diets Decoded for Modern Maladies and Pesky Symptoms

If one of your New Year’s goals is to find an eating plan that makes you feel stronger, gives you more energy, helps you with a weight loss goal, or eases digestive concerns, look no further. Our Diets Decoded series takes a look at many of today’s popular healthy diets—from paleo to Mediterranean and vegetarian—and breaks them down for you. We explain the facts about each one and then provide quick, actionable tips on how to follow each diet as part of a Nutritious Life if it is appropriate for you. “For each individual, the healthiest diet is an approach to eating that fuels your body and mind and fits into your lifestyle,” says Nutritious Life founder Keri Glassman, MS, RD, CDN. “Eating empowered, one of the eight pillars of a Nutritious Life, means listening to your body and focusing on the diverse, delicious, healthy foods you can have rather than what a hard-to-follow diet says you can’t have.” In this roundup, we review five eating plans geared toward alleviating the symptoms of many of today’s chronic illnesses—from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis to other autoimmune and blood sugar imbalances. Read on for a rundown on five of today’s most popular diets, which claim to relieve inflammation, heal your gut, or bring balance to your mind, body and spirit. RELATED: From Paleo to Whole30: What a Celebrity RD thinks of Today’s Most Popular Diets 5 Diets for Alleviating Chronic Illness and Pesky Symptoms The Elimination Diet The Elimination Diet is a popular tool used by health professionals like registered dietitians and functional medicine physicians to help people identify foods that may be causing issues such as lack of energy, bloating or acne. As the name suggests, it’s done through a process of elimination. Read on for the details, including what you eat and don’t eat, and the pros and cons of this diagnostic tool. THE ELIMINATION DIET The Gundry Diet You may have seen Dr Steven Gundry, MD, on an infomercial touting his treatment for things like leaky gut or telling you what three healthy foods you should avoid right now. The founder of Gundry MD is a former cardiothoracic surgeon who left that career path in 2002 to start his own wellness clinic, The Center for Restorative Medicine in Palm Springs, Calif. In his new incarnation, he claims to teach people how to avoid surgery by using his “unique vision of human nutrition.” This “unique vision” is the Gundry Diet, an approach to eating that Dr. Gundry claims he’s used to successfully treat “tens of thousands of patients suffering from autoimmune disorders, diabetes, leaky gut syndrome, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases.” The diet is focused on one major principle: avoiding lectins, which are found in a variety of foods and can increase inflammation and impact your gut in negative ways, according to Dr. Gundry. Read on for the details and whether this diet stands up to its claims. THE GUNDRY DIET The Candida Diet Candida is a fungus that’s usually harmless. It’s a type of yeast that lives in your body and even helps your gut with digestion. But when it comes to candida, the more is definitely not the merrier. “Yeast can hang out and patiently wait for the environment to become more hospitable so it can multiply and thrive,” says Dr. Anna Cabeca, DO, a triple board-certified osteopathic physician. That’s when it becomes a fungal infection called candidiasis, which is no fun. The Candida Diet was developed in order to starve the candida and prevent it from spreading. If you’re struggling with candida overgrowth, find out if the pros and cons of this diet might be right for you. THE CANDIDA DIET Hashimoto’s Diet Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease that leads to damage and inflammation of your thyroid, a small but mighty gland that sits at the base of your neck and secretes important thyroid hormones. These hormones regulate energy metabolism, which means they affect nearly every organ and play a large role in your weight, heart rate, digestion, nervous system and more. Symptoms of Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism can include fatigue, unexplained weight gain, heavy or irregular menstrual periods, hair loss, dry skin, constipation, muscle aches, joint pain and depression. The Hashimoto’s Diet aims to reduce inflammation, alleviate symptoms, and reduce the risk of conditions that are often linked to Hashimoto’s, such as other autoimmune diseases, high cholesterol, obesity and diabetes. Want to put the kibosh on your hypothyroidism? Read on to find out if this diet might do the trick. THE HASHIMOTO’S DIET The Alkaline Diet The pH levels in our bodies, also called the acid-base balance, can impact our health. The human body relies on a healthy balance of acidity and alkalinity to function properly. If this balance is disrupted, it can lead to acidosis (too acidic) or alkalosis (too alkaline), both of which cause their own set of problems. The Alkaline Diet centers on the hypothesis that the foods we eat influence the pH of our bodies and thereby affect our health. It aims to help you strike the right balance, depending on your specific pH level and health concerns. Find out if the Alkaline Diet’s claims are true and whether the foods we eat can actually alter our body’s pH. Read on for more details. (Images: Shutterstock) THE ALKALINE DIET

Diets Decoded: The Sirtfood Diet

We’re going to let you in on a little secret. Most popular healthy diets that are touted for weight loss—from Paleo to Mediterranean and vegetarian—share many of the same basic principles. All involve eating whole foods (as opposed to packaged and processed) and filling your plate with quality sources of protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and vitamin-, mineral-, and fiber-rich vegetables. (Again, we’re talking about the ones that fall somewhere on the healthy spectrum, not unhealthy fad diets like, ahem, the Grapefruit Diet. However, each proposes a slightly different path that leads to fulfilling those principles. In this column, we’ll be breaking them down for you one by one so you can figure out which (if any!) is right for you. We’ll quickly explain the facts and then provide quick, actionable tips on how to follow the diet as part of a Nutritious Life. The trending Sirtfood Diet promises to help you lose seven pounds in seven days. It made headlines when singer Adele said it was the secret to her recent weight loss. But, is it safe — and more importantly sustainable? We have the Sirtfood Diet decoded. RELATED: Diets Decoded: The Elimination Diet What is the Sirtfood Diet? This diet’s foundation rests on research surrounding sirtuins (SIRTs), a family of proteins found in the body that may play a role in metabolism, inflammation, aging and chronic diseases. Certain polyphenols (plant compounds that act as antioxidants) may increase levels of sirtuins in the body. Diet founders, Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten — who refer to SIRTs as your body’s natural “skinny genes” — have named foods high in these polyphenols as “sirtfoods,” claiming they will activate mechanisms controlled by your body’s SIRTs to burn fat. By combining these sirtfoods with calorie restriction, the founders state your body will produce higher levels of sirtuins, which will then result in greater weight loss. What You Eat The top 20 sirtfoods include a variety of nutritious foods such as kale, strawberries, parsley, dark chocolate, arugula, turmeric, soy, walnuts, blueberries, coffee, and red wine. WEEK 1 The first phase of the diet lasts one week. During the first three days, you’re restricted to 1,000 calories from one meal of sirtfoods and three green juices (recipes found in The Sirtfood Diet book). The rest of that first week you can consume two sirtfood meals and two green juices adding up to 1,500 calories per day. WEEK 2 In the second two-week phase, you can eat three sirtfood meals and one green juice a day. After these phases, you’re encouraged to include sirtfoods in your diet and eat mostly plant-based meals in order to maintain results. What You Don’t Eat This is where it gets a little tricky. The Sirtfood Diet has a long list of what you can eat and focuses on having you consume those recommended sirtfoods. But while no food is technically off limits, the severe calorie restriction in the first phase of the diet means you won’t be able to eat many foods outside of the Sirtfood meals and juices. Goggins and Matten promote that by focusing on eating as many sirtfoods as possible, you won’t have much space left for other foods and beverages. RELATED: The Step-By-Step Guide to Mindful Eating Pros and Cons A pro of this program is that sirtfoods are nutrient dense foods that are high in health-promoting plant compounds — and they are great choices to incorporate into your meals regardless of the type of diet you may follow. There are some studies suggesting the health and weight loss benefits of sirtuins —showing an increase of fat loss, reducing inflammation, and combating aging and age-related diseases — but overall, the research is still pretty slim. One study found that mice genetically engineered to have high levels of the sirtuin SIRT1 were leaner and more metabolically active. In addition, researchers found that increased sirtuin activity in yeast extended their lifespan by 70 percent. While this research sounds promising, there is no evidence that this will have the same effects on humans — as well as no long-term studies to support sirtfoods being more effective than any other calorie-restricted diet. Also, it’s important to note the Sirtfood Diet has the potential to cause some negative health effects. Extreme calorie restriction may lead to short-term weight loss, but it is difficult to sustain and can create nutrient deficiencies. You’re not only losing fat, but you’ll also lose important muscle mass needed to keep you fit and healthy. Severely cutting calories can even increase the stress hormone cortisol, which wreaks havoc on the body and can lead to weight gain. The Bottom Line Sirtfoods are healthy foods. But do they have the ability to turn on your “skinny genes,” as claimed by the diet founders? The science is shaky. Chances are this plan may “work” in the short term because of the calorie restriction. But, there’s no magic bullet here. Instead of following this very restrictive diet, incorporate these delicious sirtfoods into a healthy diet and lifestyle. (Photo: Shutterstock)