Diets That You Should Overthink

With rising temperatures, people are getting ready to fit in their bathing suits. However, some of you might want to lose some weight. Not all diets are helpful to achieve that. What are the advantages and disadvantages of some diets? But for sure there are no disadvantages to playing hellspin. 

Vegetarian and Vegan Diet

In Austria, around 840,000 people were vegetarian in 2021, and 106,000 were vegan, Statistics Austria calculates, and the trend is rising. 4.6 million also have a flexitarian diet, meaning they eat meat occasionally but it is not a major part of their diet. Being vegetarian is no longer a rarity. And that’s a good thing, the animals, the environment, and the climate benefit from it. These are the main reasons, especially for young people, but the weight loss potential of a meat-free diet is repeatedly emphasized. And in fact, studies show that with a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, with the same calorie consumption, you can stimulate your metabolism better and lose more weight than with other nutritional models. Above all, insulin and cholesterol levels could be lowered more successfully.

However, this is more likely to be a correlation than a causation. In any case, there are no studies that clearly show that omitting meat leads to these positive effects. Rather, it is assumed that the higher consumption of vegetables and fiber is the reason for this. The plant-based diet also ensures a good supply of micronutrients such as vitamins, trace elements, or secondary plant substances such as beta-carotene or lycopene, i.e. coloring agents in fruit and vegetables that are said to have an antioxidant effect.

At the same time, there is a higher risk of deficiencies in certain micronutrients. This applies above all to vitamin B12, which must be substituted in a vegan lifestyle because it is only found in animal products. Deficiency can affect neurological and cognitive performance and is thought to increase the risk of thrombosis and homocysteine ​​levels, which promotes fatty deposits on the inner walls of blood vessels.

It is emphasized that nobody needs to worry that a vegetarian or vegan diet could be unhealthy. You just have to check your blood values ​​regularly, make sure you get all the necessary nutrients in your daily diet, and as a vegan, substitute vitamin B12. “But even meat eaters have to help artificially in some cases,” he knows. A well-known example of this is the enrichment of table salt with iodine. Since Austria is an iodine deficiency area, it is added to table salt, as the trace element is essential for hormone production in the thyroid gland.

Another reason why a vegan diet can have a positive effect on weight is probably that vegans usually deal more intensively with the topic of nutrition. And other nutritionists advise everyone to embark on a vegetarian and vegan diet: You don’t have to leave out everything animal right away, but you should be open to more plant-based foods. Many people eat far too few vegetables.

Gluten-Free Diet

Avoiding gluten, the gluten protein in many types of grain has become popular in recent years, especially in connection with digestive problems and food intolerances, and a flood of gluten-free products on the market supports this good weight loss concept. A gluten-free diet is definitely essential for anyone suffering from the autoimmune disease celiac disease. For them, the consumption of gluten leads to chronic inflammation in the intestines and to pathological changes in the intestinal mucosa. For healthy people, however, this type of eating makes little sense. Nutritionist König stresses that there is no scientific evidence that avoiding gluten would bring them any health benefits.

In addition, gluten-free products are often sensitively more expensive and usually do not have a higher nutritional value. It is even more likely that the reduced food choices will result in a nutrient deficiency. König also reports that the number of people with celiac disease is often overestimated, especially since many people self-diagnose. He advises getting help from an expert if you have any food intolerances.