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Last updated on July 17th, 2024 at 07:09 pm
The wellness diet is often advertised as being a healthy alternative to rigid meal plans, food restrictions, and counting calories.
But how healthy is the wellness diet? Further, what even is the wellness diet?
Common guidelines for the wellness diet include:
- Bumping up the veggies
- Cutting out sugar
- Ditching carbs
- Portion control
- Eating clean
The common denominator in all diets that claim to be wellness-focused is that they have a push towards weight loss or optimizing “health”
This article explores the most common definition of the wellness focused food restriction, examples of these types of diets, and tips for avoiding the falling into another diet trap.
Wellness Diet Definition
The wellness diet is often described as a lifestyle change in the name of health that prioritizes nutrient-dense, “clean” food choices over all other food types.
These types of diets may or may not advertise weight loss as being a health benefit. However, weight loss is often not the primary goal of wellness diets.
Many restrictive diets identify themselves as “wellness focused,” when in reality the changes they ask you to make are just another clever way to get you to restrict your food.
All diets will ask you to do some type of food restriction. The word “wellness” in front of diet simply helps the person participating in these actions feel like they are restricting their food in a “health-promoting” way.
Examples of The Wellness Diet
The beauty of the diets that define themself as “wellness focused” is that it is easy to sell. It often comes with “do this not that” instructions that empower participants when they meet the status quo.
Some examples of the wellness diet include:
- Clean eating
- The keto diet
- Whole 30
- Gluten-free diets
- Alkaline diets
- Intermittent fasting
- The Mediterranean diet
- No sugar diets
- Cleanses
- Detox
- Excessive supplement usage
The real trickery in these types of diets over traditional diets is that they tend to promote what you can have over what you can’t.
For example, “if you simply add probiotics to your diet all you need to do is cut out the sugar to be well.”
How To Identify A Diet
The wellness diet is a diet. While it is often disguised as being health-promoting rather than restricting the underlying principle is the same: you cannot trust your body to make decisions about food. You may even have a fear of being hungry because you’re scared you might make the “wrong” decision.
A diet can easily be identified as:
- Having a set of rules
- Having off-limits foods
- Pushing for portion control
- Rigid food schedules
- Calorie restriction
- Promotes zero-calorie or low-calorie foods
Avoiding The Diet Trap
Any diet including those labeled as “wellbeing focused” are a way to restrict your food, just like any other diet. In order to avoid the temptation to dig into wellness jargon try these things:
- Only do exercise you enjoy
- Do constant body image check-ins
- Practice intuitive eating habits
- Enjoy food with friends and families
- Celebrate nonscale victories
Too often chronic dieters look for language like “wellness” or “lifestyle changes” because they are tired of the same diets not working for them. These terms are just another marketing ploy of the diet industry! Wellness diets are just diets.
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