Categories of diet plans

At present, there is no absolutely uniform standard for classifying dietary plans in the industry. The core classification is based on the three dimensions of "intervention target, applicable population, and underlying logic." There is no universal "optimal plan". The ultimate goal of all classifications is to help people quickly match choices that suit their own circumstances.

Let’s not talk about those too academic divisions. The ones that people usually come into contact with the most are actually screened according to intervention goals. For example, if you want to lose fat recently, most of the results found are low-calorie balanced diet, carbon cycling, ketosis, etc. ； If there are elderly people at home who need to control blood pressure and blood sugar, then the low GI, DASH diet must be the highest priority. ； If you are a fitness enthusiast preparing for a competition and want to build muscle mass or improve body fat, then a high-protein diet and a periodic energy supplement plan are just what you need. Speaking of Deshu and the Mediterranean diet, I went to Athens for a week before. The meals of ordinary people there are basically roasted tomatoes, okra, sprinkled with olive oil, and a small handful of whole-wheat quinoa. They only eat deep-sea fish or chicken, rarely eat red meat, and eat a small handful of unsalted nuts every afternoon. No wonder the World Health Organization has listed the Mediterranean diet as the most suitable diet plan for patients with chronic diseases for so many years. It is indeed a living habit that people have practiced for decades, and it is not made up out of thin air. Last year, I helped an uncle who was newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes adjust his diet. At first, he heard from his old friend that ketosis can lower blood sugar quickly, so he secretly tried it for half a month. His fasting blood sugar did drop, but his blood lipids soared to more than twice the original level, making him extremely dizzy. In fact, he just didn't understand that there is no "long-term control of chronic diseases" among the intervention goals of ketosis. Ordinary people who try blindly without professional monitoring can easily fall into traps.

There is another category that ordinary people may not have much contact with, which is medical-grade dietary plans classified by applicable groups. For example, patients with kidney disease must strictly follow a low-quality protein diet, a step-by-step plan for adding complementary foods to infants and young children, a phased nutritional supplement diet for pregnant women, and an immune-supporting diet for cancer patients. These all have strict clinical indications and cannot be used casually as an internet celebrity trial. A while ago, a girl went back to the so-called "primitive diet" in order to lose weight. She followed other people's diet of raw meat and bones and almost contracted parasitic diseases. To put it bluntly, she confused the boundaries between ordinary health care plans and special population plans. There are also many niche dietary plans that cross categories. For example, vegetarianism can be classified as a chronic disease intervention or as a plan suitable for people with special beliefs. Some people are vegetarians just for the sake of environmental protection, so there is no need to be too rigid in the classification, just for reference.

If you dig deeper, all dietary plans are essentially based on the underlying logic, either changing the ratio of macronutrients or changing the timing of eating. The former, such as ketosis, increases the energy supply from fat to more than 70% and reduces carbohydrates to less than 5%. The Deshu diet reduces sodium intake to less than 2g per day and increases potassium intake. ； The latter is the familiar light fasting, such as 16+8 and 5:2, as well as the recently popular improved version of "no food after noon", which essentially compresses the eating window and leaves enough fasting metabolism time for the body.

Controversy about these classifications has never stopped. For example, the evidence provided by those supporting ketosis is that the short-term (within 3 months) fat loss efficiency is about 30% higher than that of a low-calorie diet, and it has a significant effect on improving insulin resistance. ； The opposition group produced more than 12 months of follow-up data, saying that people who are ketogenic for a long time are 2.4 times more likely to have high low-density lipoprotein than ordinary people, and the risk of kidney stones will also increase. There is also light fasting. Some studies say it can activate autophagy and extend the life of experimental mice. There are also clinical data showing that women with a BMI lower than 18.5 who adhere to 16+8 for a long time will increase the probability of menstrual disorders by 47%. To put it bluntly, there is no right or wrong, it just depends on whether you are suitable or not.

To be honest, in the five or six years I have been doing nutritional consulting, I have seen too many people obsessed with finding the "best" diet plan. They read a lot of categories, but as a result, they did not even understand their basic metabolism, allergens, and daily routine. In the end, they spent a lot of money and damaged their bodies. There used to be a little girl who worked in the Internet. She worked overtime until 10 o'clock every day. She insisted on following other people's 5:2 fast and only ate 500 calories two days a week. As a result, she fainted at the company in the third month. Her schedule was energy-consuming, and she imposed a plan that was not suitable for her. It would be strange if nothing went wrong.

To put it bluntly, classification is like the menu of a milk tea shop. You can't watch others order three-point sugar and it tastes good. You, a sweet lover, also order three-point sugar. In the end, you will be unhappy while drinking and blame other people's milk tea for not tasting good. In fact, the classifications are becoming more and more detailed now, but many people forget that the core criterion for judging a diet plan is never which category it belongs to, but whether you can stick to it for a long time, and after sticking to it, your physical indicators will go in a good direction. After all, classification is dead and people are alive. You can't even touch a bite of what you like to eat just to meet the standards of a certain type of diet, right? That's such a loss.