Nowadays, people are adopting various lifestyles and trends to upgrade their standards of living. This is also leading the consumers to change their eating fashion and choices. They are becoming more aware of the new food trends like Veganism and plant-based alternatives. Dieting has become quite popular among consumers who are health-conscious and wish to maintain their figure and lifestyle. However, healthy eating and dieting are two different concepts altogether. Mostly, consumers have less clarity about the two concepts and end up getting the wrong impression about them. There are various differences between dieting and eating a healthy diet.
Recent studies revealed that, females should consume a total of 2000 calories every day, while males should have 2600 calories per day. A diet that contains carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and vitamins and minerals (essential food components) in proper proportions (quantities) is known as a balanced diet. It is found that a balanced diet should include smaller portions of fats, proteins, whole grains, and more vegetables. Proper proportions of food components in a balanced diet- Carbohydrates- 45-60℅ (of the total diet), Protein- 10-30% Fats- 20-35%
Dieting
It refers to limiting oneself to small amounts of foods or some special type of foods with the main focus on limiting calories, losing weight, and maintaining body figure, whereas
Healthy Eating
It refers to being mindful and careful of what they (consumers) are eating and including foods in the diet that can benefit the body and overall help in maintaining health.
Some major differences between dieting and eating healthy—
Limiting oneself: Dieting focuses more on limiting eating too much food or some specific type of foods (like refined sugar, baked and fried food products) that can increase calorie intake, while healthy eating might not necessarily mean limiting from eating but does involve conscious of choosing what to consume and what to avoid. For instance- including portions of green vegetables, fibrous foods, fruits and other healthy food items into our regular diet as a part of healthy eating.
Time duration: The former term (dieting) is mainly associated with short-term goals whereas healthy eating is mainly connected with long-term process. Dieting often includes a fluctuating lifestyle where there an irregular changes in quantity, and quality of diet. Eating healthy food, in contrast, is mostly related to a constant rule that can be followed throughout our lifestyles.
Weight specific: Dieting is mainly adopted by consumers for losing or maintaining weight, figure by keeping in check the calorie intake. However, the latter concept is not weight-centric. It is more related to overall health, avoiding various diseases, or improving health (in case the consumer is already suffering from diseases).
Body effect:dieting can lead to ill effects on our bodies given to the fact that consumers tend to limit themselves from eating too much and sometimes in the process restrict their bodies from getting the proper nutrition for growth and development. In contrast to this, healthy eating revolves around choosing the correct food to provide proper nutrients to the body.
Caloric deficit: often dieting results in the body being depleted of required calories for proper functioning. Consumers intake fewer calories than required by their bodies for generating energy. On the other hand, healthy dieting doesn’t lead to any such thing. It comprises choosing food correctly to gain the correct amount of calories required by our body.
Balanced diet: Dieting doesn’t revolve around a balanced diet. It sometimes doesn’t even involve a proper diet and rather tits and bits of food the whole day. Eating healthy, however, is all about involving a balanced diet in our lifestyle and sticking to it for better health results. A balanced diet can provide the full nutrition required by our body for proper functioning.
Quality Vs Quantity: the former concept of dieting focuses more on the food quantity intake, while healthy eating stands for quality eating. How much we eat doesn’t determine our overall health, but what we eat does. The term dieting is more related to how much we are eating, and how frequently we are eating. However, healthy eating focuses more on selective eating, providing our body with more nutritious food elements.
Food Choice: Dieting might often lead to the selection of improper food choices in order to reduce calorie intake and reduce body weight. Trying out healthy eating, on the other hand, mostly is based on proper, healthy food selection (balanced diet) which can prove to be advantageous to our body.
Up-and-down process: Dieting mostly leads to restriction of food choices and portions for a short period and then again returning back to normal eating fashion. This results in disturbance in the body weight from time to time and can disrupt normal body functioning. Healthy eating is different from this to-and-fro process. It is for a longer duration and results in healthy outcomes for the body. It doesn’t lead to the constant changes in the diet.
Mental health issues: Our regular diet has a huge impact on our mental status and health. Dieting and limiting ourselves to small portions of food and irregular intake of food can many times lead to eating disorders like Bulimia, Binge-eating disorder, and poor mental health. In contrast to this, practicing feeding healthy food items can improve the consumers not only physically, but also mentally.
Conclusion
With the above discussion, it becomes quite obvious that healthy eating can be a much better option than dieting, which can help in the overall growth and development and fitness of consumers. It becomes crucial for consumers to research and know more about their body and health and take good measures to improve their diet, including better nutritional compositions which can ultimately lead to improvement in the body structure. Even if people decide to diet, they should take the guidance of health experts who can advise them with better dieting plans that can benefit their bodies. It’s essential to be careful about proper nutrition and overall health because as quoted a universal truth, health is the ultimate wealth.
