Welcome to my email newsletter. I am pleased to share some of my knowledge about health with you and I hope you will enjoy and benefit from some of the topics I will be talking about.

Today’s topic is...

7 ways to lose weight (without compromising your health!)

Have you ever wondered whether there is a safe way to lose weight (except for eating less, that is)? Well, actually there are several ways. The seven diets described below are all nutritionally safe as long as the recommendations are followed. Of course, there is never a guarantee that any diet you choose will suit you personally or achieve the results you want. But all seven diets have been tried by many people, so there may be one below that will just suit you with your unique metabolism and your preferred food choices.

1. Food combining

Foods are grouped into protein, carbohydrate, fat, vegetables and fruit. Foods from the protein group are never mixed with foods from the carbohydrate group. Fruit are never mixed with any other group. Food combining helps your body to make the digestion process more efficient. You may feel lighter and more energized. Your metabolism will work more smoothly and this may be why weight loss is possible on a food combining diet.

Further reading:
Habgood,J., 1997.The Hay diet made easy; the practical guide to food combining. Souvernir Press Ltd.

2. The Blood Type Diet

According to Peter D’Adamo (1998) we should all eat in a way that supports our blood group best. As a rough guide, blood group 0 (the most common) are meat eaters, but do not fare well on grains or dairy. Blood group A flourish on a vegetarian diet but become sluggish on meat. Blood group B are the only group that tolerate a range of dairy foods, but should avoid wheat, corn and lentils. Type AB are mostly a combination of type A and type B, but with some variations such as red meat being poorly digested. Eating according to your blood group is supposed to improve your metabolism and so bring about weight loss.

Further reading:
D’Adamo,P.,1998. The eat right diet. London: Century.

3. The Paleo Diet

The idea is to eat in a way that humans ate before they settled down and used agriculture and animal husbandry to sustain themselves. Early hunter gatherers would have known fire – so would be able to cook, but they would not have been able to eat grains as they could not prepare them. They ate primarily lean meat, fish, vegetables and low-sugar fruit. The Paleo diet may benefit your metabolism and make it more efficient. There is a substantial amount of research supporting this diet, and personally, this is my favourite way of eating.

Further reading:
Cordain,L., 2003. The paleo diet. John Wiley & Sons.

4. The South Beach Diet

This diet is a variant of the Paleo diet, with grains and some other carbohydrates not being allowed for a while, but then slowly re-introduced at very small amounts. There are many supporters of this diet and so a lot of anecdotal evidence for its benefits can be found.

Further Reading:
Agatston,A., 2008.The south beach diet supercharged. Rodale International Ltd.

5. The 30 Day Fat Burner Diet

This diet aims to re-programme your metabolism to burn fat by stabilising your blood sugar. When your blood sugar control is poor, what you eat is likely to be stored as fat. With the help of this diet, your blood sugar levels may be kept as even as possible and so fat may be burned instead of stored. Patrick Holford (1999) writes that several newspapers tested this diet on volunteers and found that it worked for them.

Further reading:
Holford,P., 1999. The 30 day fat burner diet. London: Piatkus.

6. The Elimination Diet

This diet aims to identify possible food intolerances which may lead to fluid retention and weight gain. The most likely problematic foods such as wheat, rye, dairy and eggs are taken out of the diet for 4 weeks. Suitable alternatives are suggested. After this initial period, foods are re-introduced one by one to see whether any reaction occurs. If you find a reaction to some foods, then leaving them out of your diet permanently may result in weight loss, as your body becomes more efficient all round.

Further Reading:
Brostoff,J. & Gamlin,L., 1998. The complete guide to food allergy and intolerance. London:Bloomsbury.

7. The Alkalizing Diet

The idea here is to create the optimal acid/alkaline balance for your body to thrive in. Most of our body tissues are meant to be slightly alkaline and this diet is designed to re-balance your body to achieve this. During the process, the body may detoxify at a tremendous rate, bringing with it major weight loss. Foods are classed as to their ability to help with this. This diet has a scientific base, and I recommend it for anyone who is inclined to be vegetarian.

Further reading:
Kilment, F.D., 2002. The acid alkaline balance diet: a program of ridding your body of acidic wastes. McGraw-Hill Contemporary.

Please remember that health depends on more than the ideal weight, and so do engage in some form of exercise and get enough fresh air, daylight, and sleep. It is also important to choose healthy options of the foods you are allowed. So for instance choose organic meat, eggs and dairy, and do not use processed and packaged foods. Stay away from commercial mayonnaise and other dressings, because they contain detrimental fats. And finally, in any diet, the main component should be fresh vegetables.

If you still do not find weight loss easy, you may have to work on your cravings (acupuncture or homeopathy may be helpful here), and/or please see your doctor as there may be an underlying condition preventing you from achieving what you want.

I wish you very happy dieting! (And don’t forget: the best diet for you is the one that makes you feel better while you are doing it, not worse!)