14 DAY TRIAL // We’re so obsessed with losing weight that we often imagine our problems can go away if we go on a drastic diet, sometimes at the expense of our own health. One in five people goes on a diet every month but never sees it to completion, it has emerged.
The makers of Seven Seas vitamin supplements conducted a survey to establish whether people today weren’t putting weight loss ahead of living healthy – and it turns out they do, the Daily Mail reports.
Instead of focusing on overhauling their eating habits in order to live a healthier, more satisfying life, people (and women in particular, it appears) turn their attention to low-calorie foods which, in most cases, are not even half as healthy as they claim to be.
While one in five people go on a diet each month, about one third of them choose to shift the extra pounds by cutting down the extra calories with low-calorie versions of various foods.
The focus is all wrong, of course, experts warn: low-calorie items usually have more additives and sugar for extra flavor so, in the long run, that’s detrimental to their health.
The tendency is even more exaggerated in women: about 43 percent of those queried admit to shopping for low-calorie food on a regular basis while, ironically, 63 percent insist they believe society is putting too much pressure on them to be skinny.
Many of the 2,000 respondents reveal their resolution to stay away from unhealthy sweet treats, but few manage to stick to it: two thirds of them have at least one such treat a week.
Mothers too buy lots of sweets. Around 50 percent of them fill their shopping cart with whatever items their children like, while 3 in 10 moms reward good behavior with a sweet treat.
Few people eat the necessary amount of veggie and fruit, the same survey also reveals.
In order to lose weight and be healthy, this is precisely what they should do, Dr. Emma Derbyshire of Manchester Metropolitan University, contributor to the survey, underlines.
“It would seem that we are still struggling to grasp the concept of ‘good nutrition’ and the reason why we eat food in the first place. Though it is important to acknowledge calorie intake, this must not come at the expense of eating a balanced and varied diet, low in saturated fat but also rich in vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids,” she says.
“Often, processed, low-calorie food can contain high levels of sugar and additives, and so may not be as healthy as people think,” the nutritionist adds.