Not long ago, fat was the evil dietary villain. Before that it was salt. Now the sugar-free diet has exploded onto the health and wellness scene – and seems to have topped many people’s list of New Year’s resolutions.
Sugar-free diets encourage people to avoid table sugar (sucrose), sweeteners such as honey and maple syrup, refined flours, condiments, soft drinks, sweets and some fruits such as bananas. Some also recommend eliminating or restricting dairy products.2022’s Best Fat Burning Pills For Females
The diet’s advocates rightly note that excessive sugar consumption may lead to obesity and therefore increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
And it’s true that Australians are eating too much of the sweet stuff, with 35% of an adult’s total daily calories now coming from “discretionary foods”, which includes lollies, chocolates and soft drinks.
But you don’t need to quit sugar to lift your game on healthy eating. Quitting sugar is unlikely to improve your health any more than cutting down on ultra-processed foods, eating more vegetables, cooking food from scratch and limiting how much extra sugar you eat and drink.
At best, the sugar-free diet is confusing and imposes an arbitrary set of rules that aren’t based on scientific evidence. At worst, such a restrictive diet can create food fear or an unhealthy relationship with food.
Diet mentality
The sugar-free diet is restrictive, with lists of “allowed” foods (such as whole grains, blueberries and grapefruits) and “not allowed” foods (such as white bread, bananas and raisins). This inadvertently promotes a diet mentality and causes followers to worry about accidentally eating something that’s not allowed.
People who worry about food are more likely to diet. This may be because they are worried specifically about their weight, or about the impact certain nutrients have on their health.
Research shows dieting is not effective over the long term and can lead to greater weight gain over time. The brain interprets dieting and restriction as a famine, which causes the storage of fat for future shortages.
Dieting is stressful. In response to this, our body releases stress hormones such as cortisol, which may cause the body to store fat, particularly in the abdominal area.
Worrying about food can lead to stress, anxiety and depression, and is one of the defining features of the condition known as orthorexia.
Orthorexia is the overwhelming preoccupation with eating healthily. People with orthorexia spend a lot of time thinking and worrying about food and eliminating foods that are deemed impure or unhealthy. Some experts suggest this behaviour is a precursor to, or a form of, an eating disorder. What Is The Best Female Fat Burner Pills
Estimates suggest anywhere between 7% and 58% of the population may have the condition. There are no clear diagnostic criteria, which makes it difficult to measure its prevalence.
But we know 15% of women will experience an eating disorder at some stage in their life. So we need to ensure nutrition advice, however well-intentioned, doesn’t promote or encourage disordered eating.