Bipolar Diet – The New American Style of Eating

Bipolar Diet – The New American Style of Eating

Our diets have developed a dual personality: one day we eat healthy and green, and the next day we indulge ourselves with fatty pork and cheese. Is this eating habit healthy for us, and does it contribute to weight gain? In this article we will discuss the relationship we have with food and we will explore the truth and the consequences of this new Yo-Yo trend.

You go shopping and you decided to choose only organic, premium Bio food. You put in your basket a salad, a piece of wild salmon and organic chicken without antibiotics, fed on grass and not with GMOs. Moreover, you subscribe to a site with bio recipes and certainly you eat only foods without chemicals, without gluten and other chemicals, in a word, delicious food in its purest and most natural form. You are subscribed to all the blogs that promotes raw food and have your own local fruit and vegetable supplier.

That is until you get to the candy shelf, where a pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups winks at you irresistibly. Delicious! You put the pack in your cart without carrying that it’s full of sugar and additives. Later, you will eat healthy again.

It seems that you are the only one who oscillates between these extremes – fully healthy food and the next minute, choosing foods full of sugar, fat and additives. Welcome to the new American style of eating, which is called Bipolar Diet.

In the morning, for breakfast you drink a chia smoothie, rich in protein, you eat zucchini “noodles” because they are more dietary than pasta and all day you drink green detox juice. After all this commitment you, you give in to a slice of warm bread on which you spread some butter and at the restaurant you order bacon for all the dishes, and finally, you “dive” into a homemade ice cream, topped with chocolate and plenty of whipped cream.

Diet extremes

This messy way you are feeding, this culinary chaos, is only part of a bigger “picture” broader identified by researchers as a desire to choose healthy food while at the same time you are not refusing to make other small culinary “compromises”. “Consumers today are not consistent regarding a correct diet plan”, explains Kelly Welket, director of Technomic, a food company that collects data on consumer trends and food choices.

80% of those surveyed in a study conducted by Technomic said they did not follow a specific diet all the time and most of them oscillate between the healthy and unhealthy food. In particular, our behavior varies significantly, depending on where we are: consumers tend to eat healthier at home and less healthy at the restaurant. “What we eat depends on the occasion, the context and the day of the week”, said Welket.

The eating experience

We live in gastronomy times and to abstain from any foods, whether it is a type of vegetables or foods high in fat, means deprivation. We are sophisticated consumers, so we are always looking for the ultimate trends in gastronomy. Restaurants and food carts are everywhere. In addition, we can watch how sensational foods are being prepared on the TV and this only increases our appetite for food. Not to mention that the social media constantly “feeds” this appetite of ours. You can check Instagram or Pinterest without seeing more than a few appetizing images with various preparations.

People post pictures of fries prepared in duck fat, sprinkled with truffle oil, along with other images of vibrant green spinach smoothies.

“We see images of super healthy meals and super decadent meals and nothing in between. It makes you think that people eat such food all the time and that it is so normal”, says Dawn Jackson Blatner nutritionist. We also have the tendency to concentrate on certain foods, whether they are healthy or not. So it seems that our passion for salad, quinoa, natural juices can coexist alongside the one for bacon, burger and chocolate cakes.

Like any trend, fashion goes and returns. Ten years ago, fat was the enemy and we started to avoid it, but we started to eat too many carbohydrates. Now we have a “bacon obsession” and we love butter and coconut oil. Surprisingly, eating “tolerant” foods can be beneficial for our health. Researchers at Cornell University conducted a study about the development of gastronomic culture and about eating a wide variety of foods that affect our weight and health.

After having interviewed more than 500 women, scientists found that those with an “adventurous” feeding habits – that have tried a greater variety of unconventional foods such as pork belly, beef tongue or rabbit – are healthier, they have a more balanced weight and are more active than those who are reluctant to try unfamiliar recipes.

“These findings represent exactly the opposite of what people were expecting” said Dr. Brian Wansink one of the authors of the study and the writer of the “Slim by Design” book. Being open to different tastes and flavors can be a healthy way to follow for people who eat a variety of foods, to enjoy tastes and textures rather than quantity. In other words, the experience of trying new tastes is so satisfying for them that they do not need to eat a large quantity to be satisfied.

Related article: Combine Food Corectly

Tackling the core of the matter

Just tasting is not usually enough for everyone. “Some people react well, without problems, if you they have to switch from varied food in small quantities, to healthy food”, said Roberts. “For others, if they want to remain at a normal weight, they have to restrain themselves to only healthy foods with very few exceptions.” This balance between healthy eating and food variation transform “extreme eating” into a good option. The problem is that such a balance is difficult to be achieved. “Perhaps the hardest thing in the world is moderation,” said Dr. David Katz, MD, founder of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, at Yale University. “You eat something from the tempting foods, but you need mental strength to say when it is enough. For many people it is easier to refrain completely rather than eating forbidden foods and stopping before things get out of control”. If you cannot keep control concerning what and how much you are eating, you will most certainly infuriate yourself and become frustrated. We tend to find moral issues in our healthy food. We perceive ourselves as vulnerable if we overeat and feel guilty. But punishing or condemning ourselves has a counterproductive effect because guilt activates the stress response in the brain. Cortisone, one of the stress hormones, floods our body and makes us eat more. Women who eat more varied foods are healthier and more active than those who keep a strict regime.

T from Sweet Temptation

So, how should we eat healthy without depriving ourselves of the tempting and delicious foods? I think we can all agree that it’s not pleasant when you order a grilled chicken breast with steamed broccoli while your friends indulge themselves duck and crispy potatoes.

The secret is to follow some rules. Add an “adventure” note to your diet. If you are worried that you cannot abandon foods that are too tempting, you can only “taste” them. Garnish your salad with a little cream cheese or a few pieces of spicy meat to delight your taste buds. Try each week to eat a food you’ve never tried before. By doing so, you’re not so much concerned with the process of eating, which will help you overall to eat a lot healthier.

Learn to get rid of the Good versus Evil mentality

If you want to eat something, do not refrain from doing so. You will only manage to get angry and at some point you will end up stuffing your face or choosing something with at least as many calories as the food you declined. Instead, eat what you want and enjoy every bite. Chew slowly to feel the flavor and the texture of the dish. Let yourself be indulged by the pleasure produce by food and do not be afraid to enjoy it. Tell yourself that you could do this again, anytime. Taste a little the foods that are “dangerous” and remember not to rush and that you will be able to “taste” them again tomorrow. This way you prevent the “now or never” panic and you will stay away from the “great temptations”.

Source: Healthybomb.com

Recommendations:

Ultimate Body Transformation

4 Offers: Fat Burning Kitchen, 101 Anti-aging Foods, Truth about abs

Metabolic Cooking – Fat Loss Cookbook

Anabolic Cooking – Muscle Building Cookbook

THE 3 Week Diet