24/7 access to the refrigerator has been one of the unintended effects of working from home. It turns out that stress eating, boredom eating and comfort eating all have one thing in common - consuming large quantities of calories! And that means that losing weight is on many people’s minds today. We invited our diet and lifestyle expert, Dr Philip Rouchotas, to talk to us about which diets are the most effective at managing weight loss and helping prevent chronic disease.
Key Takeaways
Caloric Intake
The core of how we go about trying to achieve weight loss for people is restricting their caloric intake. Intermittent fasting means you restrict the frequency of feeding, so you inherently restrict caloric intake and that’s going to lend itself to weight loss effectively.
Mediterranean Diet
You can apply the Mediterranean diet to any part of the world. A key study on the Mediterranean dietary pattern was done in India and it was called the Indo-Mediterranean dietary pattern. So the core of this dietary pattern is first, eat lots of plants and nuts and seeds, also enjoy meals with others and be active - which is an amazing concept.
Nuts & LDL Cholesterol
The Mediterranean diet and the Portfolio diet reduce death by about 25 percent. Patients who followed these diets reduced their risk of death significantly. Both these diets feature nuts. Nuts have a hugely beneficial impact on LDL cholesterol.
The Ketogenic Diet
The ketogenic diet is appropriate for Type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes that is behaving like type 1. About ten percent of people with type 2 diabetes have that weird variant. We call it type “1.5”. Keto is also a no-brainer for epilepsy. On a Keto diet, the vast majority of patients end up seizure-free - making it very appropriate.
The Vegan Diet
In many cases, when people follow a vegan or vegetarian diet for a period of time, it leads to very predictable health problems, especially the vegan diet which is sometimes deficient in protein, almost always deficient in B12, and often will lead to iron deficiency.
Gluten and Dairy-Free Diets
Gluten and dairy-free diets are very beneficial for patients with autoimmune diseases, like asthma, arthritis, chronic skin conditions, inflammatory bowel disease and many others. That is still modelled on a Mediterranean dietary pattern and is a valuable treatment tool.
Key Quote
“The Mediterranean diet says to eat plenty of vegetables, plant oils, nuts and seeds. Eat meals with others, be physically active and enjoy a little red wine, which is not a bad thing”. Dr Philip Rouchotas, ND
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The opinions expressed in this Nutramedica program are those of the guests and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Nutritional Fundamentals For Health Inc.
This video is intended for licensed or registered health professionals and students of health professions only. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Information contained in these programs is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
