Diet Food
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Diet food can be and often is referred to as dietetic food and it pertains to any food or drink or groups of foods and drinks whose recipes have been modified in one way or another to be suitable for consumption by people to rectify, relieve or prevent various health conditions (such as overweight, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure or cholesterol, kidney ailments, food allergies and so on) that would not react well to conventional recipes. Diet food such as kosher, vegan, vegetarian, Middle Eastern, Italian, Chinese, etc. must also cater to people of different cultural, ethnic and religious groups. In addition, diet food or dietetic food also refers to a group of natural (unprocessed, unprepared and uncooked) foods such as fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains.
Some of the most frequently used words and phrases that categorize diet foods and drinks are: lite, low calorie, low fat, no fat, fat free, fake fat, no sugar, sugar free, zero calories, decaf, caffeine free, low carb, zero carb, kosher, parve, low sodium, vegan, vegetarian, wheat free, gluten free, and dairy free. In the United States, these terms are regulated by federal laws in conjunction with the Food and Drug Association and must adhere to very specific guidelines. For instance, a food product that is labeled ‘low fat’ in the United States must contain no more than three grams of fat per serving whereas a food product that is labeled ‘fat free’ must not exceed one half grams of fat per serving.
Converting a standard recipe into a dietetic recipe involves modifying, substituting, replacing or removing one or more ingredients such as sugar, fat, carbohydrates, sodium or caffeine. In addition, changing the method (i.e., baking or broiling vs. frying) of preparing some foods will result in lowered caloric counts. The process is not easy, as a matter of fact it is quite complex, since consumers usually expect the diet recipe to yield the same flavor, smell, appearance and texture as the standard recipe does and that is not always possible.
Since many of the substituting ingredients that go into diet food are manmade laboratory compounds, there is a controversy about their chemical nature and whether they are safe for human consumption and to what degree. Opponents claim that the substitute ingredients may be at least as harmful as the ingredients they are substituting for, if not more so. The debate over diet food and its chemical ingredients has been going on for quite a while but has not, as of yet, been resolved satisfactorily.
Diets and diet food is a huge industry in the United States and new diets crazes come and go daily but I will name a few of the more popular ones that have stayed longer than most and describe some of their principles. Please note that I choose to remain neutral by neither advocating nor refuting any of these diets:
- The South Beach Diet. This diet teaches its users to change the balance of their food intake by eliminating the bad carbs and the bad fats and replacing them with good carbs and good fats.
- The Raw Food Diet. Proponents of this diet claim that much of the processed, prepared and cooked food is indigestible whereas raw food is highly and always digestible therefore its nutritional value is readily gleaned by each cell of the human body. The diet further claims that the results are high energy and good health.
- The Atkins Diet. This diet stresses cutting down on carbohydrates while increasing protein intake.
- The GenoType Diet. This diet declares that to promote good health, high energy and longevity, different food groups must be consumed for different blood types.
Eat well and live well, is my personal motto.
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