A human being needs a balanced diet for healthy survival, and that means being able to have a strong resistance to disease and at the same time carry out all those duties and functions that need the healthy functioning of body and mind. So what does a balance diet consist of? A balanced diet needs a proper combination of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. Now let us take a close look at what all these constituents do. Carbohydrates of course are the main source of energy for the body and any human being no matter the work the person does, needs energy. Many of us go along with the presumption that only those who do manual labor need a lot of energy. Wrong! For the working of the brain too, energy is required.
Proteins are rather tricky because these things undergo a lot of changes, inside our bodies, get broken down into amino acids and these in turn carry out a lot of functions which are imperative for the well being of our bodies. Vitamins are needed for certain specific activities and functions in the body and only if these vitamins are present in enough quantities can a person remain healthy or else we get what doctors call deficiency diseases.
Minerals too are needed but maybe not in the same quantities as the other nutrients and many of these minerals are referred to as trace minerals because they are needed in very small quantities only.
And that’s it, all the nutrients that a person needs are there and our list is complete. Not quite, because if you examine the list that we had mentioned above you will see that fats have not been included in the description. And that is because fats and oils are the only part of your diet that is not really indispensable. Fats are more like energy reserves. The fat content of your food is broken down to simpler sources of energy like simple sugars and these are kept ready for the body requirements.
But often the body does not require so much energy and then what happens is that these simple sugars cannot be stored as such in the body so they are again converted in storable forms that is fat and this fat is stored in various convenient parts of the body like that over eager midsection.
So the only part of your diet that you can really do away with is the fat content. This is the only thing that has a substitute and that is the simple sugars and carbohydrates that form part of your diet. Everything else is essential for your body and now you can judge for yourself how true those fad diets are. But there is another issue over here and that is that you should take in only that amount of simple sugars and carbohydrates that your body needs. This is what is measured in calories. Calories are in fact a unit of heat and this is taken as a measure for the work that your body can perform. So when a food substance is said to have so many calories it means this much energy can be derived from that food substance and then the question becomes, does your body need so much energy?
As we mentioned earlier, the fat deposits in our body is actually energy reserves. This will be used up only if the body needs it. So our objective should not be to decrease the intake of food and there by force the body to use up the fat deposits. On the contrary our objective should be to make the body burn up those extra reserves of energy by working out or engaging in an exercise routine.
Let’s get one thing straight. The fat reserves in our bodies are not thinking machines, the moment you reduce your intake of food, these fat reserves would not start burning up to compensate for the deficit of energy. Food is energy; and when the body is devoid of food, the immediate result is fatigue, lethargy, reduced performance and inefficiency. It is only at a later time when the body starts wasting away that these fat reserves get used up. You will have to go hungry for many a day and still be surprised to notice that there is not much difference in the deposits of fats here and there in your body.
On the other hand when you work out, do manual work or have an exercise routine, the body has no choice but to burn out those fat reserves and if there is limited intake of fat the fat reserves that are used are not compensated.
Now that we have some sense about how our bodies work let us proceed to examine these fad diets a little more clearly. Most of them talk about cutting out on carbohydrates completely. The results are felt rather fast, there’s no doubt about that. But how long do they last is the question. The moment the diet is relaxed, everything that you lost will be back in a jiffy or before you can say Jack Robinson.
