No Diet Day: What Exactly is a Diet?
Yesterday marked "International No Diet Day". According to this newspaper:
"one dietitian would like to see the day become an all-year theme and diets banned."
So - a dietitian would like to see diets banned...
Sometimes words become so overused they completely lose their meaning. Other words, like "diet" are so ambiguous that the meaning can change at a moments notice.
The word can be used to bludgeon the guilty: "Diets don't work - you should learn how to eat healthy instead."
The word can also be used to impart positivity and even superiority: "My children have a wonderfully nutritious and wholesome diet."
How confusing!
For most - the word diet means: "a temporary period of time during which food is restricted."
In spite of so many bad connotations - "diet" is still a big seller. Many authors use the word diet in their book titles - simply because it will sell. Never mind the fact that inside these very books, the author often goes on to deride diets!
Blogger PastaQueen says:
I don't want to say I'm on a diet, because this is a permanent change that leaves me satisfied and happy. I'm not suffering in any way because of it. The word "diet" makes it sound like I'm eating only protein shakes and vitamin pills. I also don't want to say I'm not on a diet because I am following guidelines and actively managing what I eat.
We need a new word. We need a word that implies temporary food deprivation for the purposes of losing weight.
There is also an issue about control here. If someone else tells you what to eat - it's a diet. If you choose - then it's not a diet.
We don't use the phrase "on a diet" in our house. Instead, people just see us as fussy eaters.
It seems you can't win.
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I agree with Pasta Queen; I don't like to use the word diet because it implies a temporary change in my eating habits.
I don't to say lifestyle choice or lifestyle change.
Brian
ReplyYour diet is technically whatever you eat on a daily basis. I'm not reducing calories at the moment but I still have a diet. I'm not on a diet. Everyone has a diet even if they aren't on a diet.
ReplyI agree with Katie - diet is the fodd you eat. But a word (or a few words) for, "temporary food deprivation for the purposes of losing weight" would be calorie restriction.
ReplyWhat about, a "caloric deficit plan" (CDP for short)? A CDP connotes burning more calories than consumed, thereby losing weight.
Sorry, I can't eat that piece of cake, I'm on a CDP!
Replyi hate that word too and even though i'm currently on weight watchers, i don't see it as a diet because i'm not restricting myself... i can eat my favorite foods and still lose weight so its more of a lifestyle change... i HAVE been on diets though (atkins) and like most, gained weight when i went off the plan... just think of how empty bookstores would be if we never used the word 'diet' in anything...
ReplyIn our household, we generally try to eat healthy and watch portions. But if we start getting a bit sloppy and want to resolve to be even more careful, we say we are "going on a Thing." I don't know why we avoid the word "diet" even when we do mean temporarily watching calories more carefully.
For some reason, "going on a Thing" periodically seems to work for us as a strategy for long-term weight maintenance. It feels like part of a cycle--we have alternating periods of relatively more or less indulgence, but these are self-limiting and seem to balance out.
ReplyThat's interesting: when you look up the word "diet" in many dictionaries (or just Google "define: diet"), you get something akin to "a prescribed selection of foods". Even with that said, I try not to use the word "diet" when I'm talking to folks about what I eat, and even then I have to qualify it by saying "not diet as in trying to lose weight, diet as in what we eat every day". I agree with Jim, we need a new word that means "losing weight"!
ReplyI say "diet" because it's quick and people have some vague idea of what it means. If I say I've permanently changed my lifestyle using the principles of The South Beach Diet, their eyes start glazing over.
Of course, no one really wants to know how I've lost 75 pounds once I tell them that it involved eating right and exercising... ;-)
Reply"Diet" usually does have a negative connotation even though it shouldn't. My husband has a diet of beer, onion rings, beef brisket, and potatoes. He's hardly deprived and he's definitely not losing any weight on his diet. I follow a "diet" too...it's just the foods I customarily eat. It doesn't mean I don't eat anything else. I lost the majority of my weight using WW and I never felt deprived of anything. I could eat whatever the hell I wanted, as long as I had enough calories to spend on it. It's like the word "budget"...it's how you spend your money, but most people see it and think: "No more shoe shopping".
I like the term "calorie deficit plan" instead of diet and "money management plan" instead of budget.
ReplySpeaking of which, I have to go shoe shopping - my running shoes are a disgrace. Forget the money management plan! =D
ReplyHow about instead of a "deficit", which lends to me, the connotation of deprivation, a control plan. CCP Calorie Control Plan... Calorie Counting Plan...
It can mean, controlling/counting your calories, either for maintenance, loss, or gain!
ReplyI just keep thinking of the first three letters in the word diet. And about the cake...some of start eating cake (etc.) but can't stop. Good promotion idea, bad health sanity idea.
ReplyI agree, it's probably time to have a new word for it. The word diets seems to be overused and people have different views about it.
ReplyI love it. And when you are maintaining, you can be on a CNP ("caloric neutral plan").
ReplyI'm a Weight Watchers lifer, and I've gotten into the habit of saying, "I'm back on plan," for when I'm following the guidelines for losing weight, or "I'm on maintenance," for when I'm not trying to lose weight. I never use the word "diet" just because it doesn't sound like what I'm doing. I try to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
ReplyWe definitely need new language.
What does it really mean to say diets don't work but lifestyle changes do??? If "lifestyle changes" involve calorie restriction and calorie counting in the service of weight loss or even weight maintenance, how is that not a diet?
ReplyWe need to change it indeed. People with different perspective about diet will only be confused by the way we use the word diet. Besides, diet is a widely used word and it's being used often.
ReplyThe no Diet diet - by Ben Fletcher, http://www.nodietdietway.com/ did anyone ever tried it? I'm doing it for a week now, and I have to admit it feels great. It has nothing to do with food, just psychology. And I do eat only when I'm hungry, and I'm less hungry then I'm used to.
ReplyWould love to hear from other people who did it.
It is such a fussy word, as to me 'diet' implies a sensable control over what one eats for the sake of weight and health. Not temporary, and not necessaraly unhealthly done.
Reply