With all the diet fads that seem to spring up daily, it can be challenging to keep up. Some of the new diet trends confuse the playing field, making it hard to winnow out the gimmicky from the genuine. We’ve done the gleaning for you and brought you three newish diet trends worth exploring.
1. The Sirtfood diet
The sirtfood diet, touted to activate your skinny gene, combines calorie restriction with chocolate, coffee and red wine (thereby hugely extending its fan base), to lose weight. According to researchers, sirt foods work by stimulating specific proteins in the body called sirtuins thought to regulate inflammation, metabolism and the aging process. The authors of the book, “The Sirtfood Diet,” nutritionists Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten, believe that sirtuins mimic the effects of fasting and boost metabolism, which can result in a seven pound weight loss the first week.
The first phase of the sirt food diet lasts one week. It requires you eat only 1,000 calories a day the first three days, 1,500 the last four, and consume an abundance of high-sirt foods. A maintenance period of two weeks follows, featuring three sirtfood-rich meals a day. The maintenance protocol aims to be sustainable and long term, helping the body reset to its most appropriate weight.
The foods, a diverse roundup of whole foods plus the controversial inclusion of chocolate, coffee and wine, includes apples, citrus fruits, parsley, capers, blueberries, green tea, soy, strawberries, turmeric, olive oil, red onion, arugula and kale.
2. Beach Body Portion Fix Eating Plan
This diet plan is the equivalent of a color-by-number painting. This easy-to-follow system includes seven color-coded containers and a shaker cup for beverages designed to take the guesswork out of portion size. The colors represent six categories of food: vegetables, fruits, proteins, carbohydrates, healthy fats, and seeds and dressings.
If it sounds basic, it is—and that might be the secret to its success. No more eyeballing, weighing, or crunching calories. If the portion fits inside the container, is within your daily limit and is on the list of approved corresponding foods, it’s all yours. The portion regime is inherently satisfying, revealing the pleasures to be had from the discipline of thinking—and eating—inside of the box.
3. The Microbiome Diet
The goal of the microbiome diet is to "heal your gut, reset your metabolism and achieve dramatic, sustainable weight loss." The premise? Our diet shapes our microbiome (bacteria) and thereby affects our ability to digest various types of food. What we eat has a huge and almost immediate effect on our gut bacteria—for better and as is most often the case, for worse. Diets that focus on the gut/weight and the gut/brain connection are one of the biggest diet trends of recent years.
“The Microbiome Diet,” written by Raphael Kellman, MD, draws from his two decades of experience as a specialist in intestinal medicine and functional health. Many intestinal health experts like Kellman propose that microbiome functions as our body's "second brain”—an extensive network of neurons, chemicals and hormones that constantly provide feedback about how hungry and stressed we are as well as how safe are food is.
A growing body of research supports the idea that a healthy balance of good bacteria in the body may help regulate weight and ward off a range of health issues. The microbiome diet zeroes in on eating food that protects, boosts, and supports your gut in moderate, non-restrictive ways.
