Let’s be clear about what the term “diet” really means

People often associate dieting with the act of restricting their food intake. You often hear the term “I am on diet” , and more and more drinks are labelled with the term “diet” to indicate that they are suitable for people who are watching their weight. Actually, when it comes to nutrition, Diet is a sum of foods consumed by a person. Dietary habits can vary between individuals and cultures. So technically we are all on diet because we eat, right? So let’s stop associating this term to some negative concept that suggests “dieting is for fat people”.

This is the first thing that I am trying to convey when I run my Arriba! Weight Loss classes. By default the human diet should be healthy, e.g. provides to the body the right amount and combination of nutrients so it can maintain, repair, and recover itself. And when I mention nutrients I am suggesting good proteins, good fats, good carbohydrates and the right amount of vitamins and minerals.

Obesity in Great Britain tripled over the last 20 years, still rising.

The reason why the level of obesity is rising in Britain is because we lost the concept and knowledge of dieting. We are now on a high sugar, high fat (the bad ones!) diet, and this is now the only diet we know. But our body didn’t have a chance to evolve quick enough to adapt to this new diet, so it stores the food it has in excess and it expands! Unfortunately, obesity is not an aesthetic problem associated with shape and figures; obesity is directly linked to health issues such as heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure,osteoarthritis..the list is long. So we should all take our diet very seriously, regardless if we are trying to lose weight or not!

It seems that we are giving up on ourselves because the concept of “Healthy Diet” sounds daunting, complex and expensive. Healthy calories can be more expensive and less accessible than unhealthy calories but the first step into a healthy diet is: Knowledge and Education, this is as simple as that. You heard me well: we all need to go to a “Healthy Diet School” that teaches us the basic of good nutrition. And this is not about counting calories, or maintaining diet sheets, or even relying on food combination. This is about educating your body so it gets used to healthy nutrition and this is also about educating yourself so you understand why your body does what it does.

An Healthy Diet School for all

The ideal “Healthy Diet School” may not exist yet because of the economy pressure to eat refined food, but we have access to a wide range of information on the internet and we also have organisations such as the Arriba! Weight Loss clubs. In a way overweight people who attend our classes are lucky because they give to themselves the opportunity to lose weight but they are also empowered so they can become healthy and teach others how to do the same. And this is why I am so proud to be part of it.

So please, respect yourself, respect your body. Don’t think that health issues will never happen to you: prevention is better than cure! Being a victim is not your fault, but staying one is! So if you know that you are living an unhealthy life, do the right thing today, ignorance is no excuse!