Although diet is often associated with one’s weight, what it actually refers to is the kind of food that one ingests. So, what is your diet like? Which among the following groups do you belong?
The Carnivores
Carnivores are those whose diet consists of meat. In reality, people under this category are rare finds because vegetables, even in its smallest quantity, always figure in a person’s diet. Meats are high in protein, fat, some vitamins and almost no fiber to clean our color and other organs. This is the reason eating it in excess causes cancer.
The Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarian
A lacto-ovo-vegetarian is a person who does not eat flesh, but takes dairy products such as egg (ovo) and milk (lacto) which are products of chickens and cows. Mainly, their diet consists of vegetables, grains, nuts, legumes and fruits. This type of diet prevents chronic diseases.
The fear of protein deficiency is answered by the theory that a combination of two protein vegetables is equivalent to the amount of protein derived from meat. The advantages of such eating habit include low blood pressure and cholesterol level, reduced risk of heart diseases, osteoporosis, obesity, and hypertension.
Vegans strictly stick to a vegetable and fruit diet. They do not eat milk and dairy products such as yogurt, ice cream, cheese and eggs. Thus, their protein hangs in a very precarious balance. Moreover, there is also a danger of other nutrient deficiencies such as iron, calcium, zinc, vitamin A, D and B12. Supplements should be taken. Children and women are advised to stay away from this type of diet.
The Macrobiotic Diet Eaters
A Macrobiotic diet revolves around the ideas that only cooked food should be eaten, dairy products, and egg are avoided, fruits are reduced to a minimum, flour and baked goodies are not to be touched, members of the nightshade family (sweet potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, spinach, avocados, peppers, potatoes) are not to be ingested, and the only animal to be eaten are fishes. They are also kept to less than 7 percent of the whole diet. Recommended foods are grains, vegetables, primary beans (lentils, garbanzos, azukis), soybean products, and pickled food.
The Raw Food Diet Eaters
A raw food diet, on the other hand, puts forth the theory that uncooked food has all its nutrients intact. People who submit to this philosophy eat fruits, nuts, vegetables, sun teas and fresh fruits. If you want to lose weight, this may the healthy way of going about it. However, intake of limited kinds of food will not benefit you in the long run because the balance among nutrients is lost.
The Fruitarian
A fruitarian, as the name suggest, is limited to eating fruits. This means foregoing of essential fatty acids, calcium, magnesium, iron, protein and other minerals