Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Why Diets Don't Work
    Why Diets Don't Work
    Why Diets Don't Work
    Ebook86 pages1 hour

    Why Diets Don't Work

    By Kat Tancock

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Health and fitness contradictions abound in today’s rush-’n-ready world. Svelte models embody our physical aspirations while a cycle of indulgence and remorse governs what and how we eat. Headlines trumpet the successes of fad diets while criticizing those who have fallen off the dieting wagon or failed in their discipline.

    Despite an environment that encourages us to consume more calories more often and bodies that are designed to fatten up, our culture expects people (especially women) to exert extraordinary self-control to lose weight.

    Why Diets Don’t Work is a criticism of conflicting dieting messages, but it’s also a story of health. Kat Tancock teaches readers why it's okay to let go of "fat guilt" and a deprivation mindset, and she shows them how to focus instead on choosing and controlling their environments and being aware of external and internal eating cues.

    Topics include:

    • The evolution of "normal" eating (why are our plates and cups so huge?)
    • Dieting history and trends, as well as today's juice fasts
    • Real women's experiences with dieting and weight gain and loss
    • Food marketing in North America
    • Why we overeat
    • Food choices as a form of identity, and food as reward
    • Why deprivation diets almost always backfire
    • How exercise really can help you lose weight (and it's not about calories burned)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateDec 18, 2012
    ISBN9781443422567
    Why Diets Don't Work
    Author

    Kat Tancock

    KAT TANCOCK has written on health and nutrition for publications including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Flare and Glow and has worked as an editor at major Canadian magazines including Reader's Digest, Best Health and Canadian Living. Currently a freelance writer and consultant specializing in health, fitness, food and travel, she is also new media editor at Food & Drink and a part-time yoga teacher. Follow Kat on Twitter @kattancock, on Tumblr at kattancock.tumblr.com and on Pinterest at pinterest.com/kattancock, and visit her website at kattancock.com.

    Related to Why Diets Don't Work

    Related ebooks

    Meditation and Stress Management For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Food For Feelings

      Jun 13, 2018

      Words CARROL BAKER You have a brand-new mortgage and your work hours are cut, your partner has cancelled a weekend away and the dishwasher has just flooded the kitchen. Before you reach for a handful of cookies or that brie calling you from the fridg

      7 min read

    • Article

      Are You Eating Your Feelings?

      May 2, 2019

      Are You Eating Your Feelings?
      3 min read

    • Article

      Reduce Sugar

      Jun 8, 2021

      Reduce Sugar
      1 min read

    • Article

      Feed Your Immunity

      Oct 13, 2021

      Feed Your Immunity
      2 min read

    • Article

      Think Your Self SLIMMER

      Jun 22, 2022

      Think Your Self SLIMMER
      3 min read

    • Article

      Mind Over Muscle

      Mar 30, 2020

      Mind Over Muscle
      5 min read

    • Article

      Calories Counting Vs Macros

      Dec 3, 2019

      Calories Counting Vs Macros
      3 min read

    • Article

      7 Keto Rules To Follow

      Jan 1, 2020

      7 Keto Rules To Follow
      1 min read

    • Article

      Fasting ‘Easier Than Traditional Dieting’

      Feb 13, 2018

      US nutritionist Dr John Berardi tried six different intermittent fasting plans over six months and published his results in the book Experiments with Intermittent Fasting. Over those six months he: • Dropped 20 pounds of weight (from 190 pounds to 17

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Next Gluten

      Apr 24, 2017

      The Next Gluten
      12 min read

    • Article

      Why Calories Don’t Count

      Oct 3, 2021

      Why Calories Don’t Count
      3 min read

    • Article

      41 Great Ways To Age Well

      Aug 1, 2019

      41 Great Ways To Age Well
      5 min read

    • Article

      Just One Thing…

      Jun 2, 2021

      Just One Thing…
      10 min read

    • Article

      Work Out What Works

      Oct 11, 2020

      Work Out What Works
      3 min read

    • Article

      BULLETPROOF COFFEE Health Hack Or Health Hype?

      Oct 21, 2019

      There’s nothing really new about the concept of bulletproof coffee (BPC), a latte-like high-fat breakfast substitute that many claim has energy-boosting and weight-loss benefits. Drinking coffee or tea with butter or yak’s milk is an age-old culinary

      3 min read

    • Article

      Let's Talk About Menopause

      Nov 4, 2022

      Let's Talk About Menopause
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Cico Diet

      Apr 3, 2022

      The Cico Diet
      1 min read

    • Article

      10 KETO GURUS worth FOLLOWING

      Sep 21, 2021

      10 KETO GURUS worth FOLLOWING
      4 min read

    • Article

      Ripped At 75!

      Oct 8, 2021

      Ripped At 75!
      4 min read

    • Article

      What’s your METABOLIC AGE?

      Dec 24, 2020

      What’s your METABOLIC AGE?
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Why Diets Don't Work

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Why Diets Don't Work - Kat Tancock

      INTRODUCTION

      Last year, for a story, I cut out sugar for two weeks. And I’m not talking just the white powdered stuff. Honey, maple syrup, fruit (except green apples) and most grains were banished from the menu—pretty much anything that might contribute to less than perfectly stable blood sugar.

      At first I felt good. You know how there’s the hunger that would make you shove aside multiple small children for an almond croissant, and then there’s the hunger that’s a pleasant reminder that your body would like some nourishment, please, whenever you get a chance? What I was feeling was the latter, and for the first few days, it felt good and virtuous to say no to the forbidden foods. Really, I thought the two weeks would be a piece of cake (not literally, of course) and my story pretty boring.

      But then. Then I started feeling like I was missing out. And the lethargy struck, as though my brain and body were crying out for glucose. I tried to go for a long run—I was training for a half marathon at the time—and had to keep taking walk breaks. My body just had nothing to give me, no energy reserves to pull from. I went home after that run and spent the rest of the day on the couch.

      So about a week in, I started adding the odd slice of toast or piece of fruit—though always with some protein and fat to keep the meal’s impact on my blood sugar low. And when the two weeks were up, I rewarded myself for the 14 long days of deprivation with all my favourite indulgent foods. And the four pounds I lost during those two weeks (which I had gained the month before on a two-week-long, cake-filled visit to Peru) came back again, along with a few more.

      Other than a couple of elimination diets for allergy-revealing purposes, it was my first real experience with the binge-purge cycle of a restrictive diet, allowing me to enter a not-so-restrictive club of, well, most North Americans these days. Many of us are trying to lose weight, and though we all know logically that we’ll eventually give up on any diet that makes us suffer—and, yes, gain the weight back again and more—we’re still searching for a solution, that magical trick that will allow us to enjoy our favourite foods and our favourite outfits. And I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering: Is there anything that really will work in a healthy and happy way? Or should I just throw in the towel, stop caring and head to the mall to update my wardrobe?

      I should stop for a moment to point out that I’m not, nor have I ever been, overweight. But as I’ve moved from my relatively skinny teens and early 20s into my mid-30s, the number on the scale has crept up and up despite my efforts to resist what our culture considers a normal part of getting old. And the official, on-the-chart line that divides healthy from needs-to-lose-a-few-pounds is getting very scarily close.

      I’m a health and fitness writer, not to mention a yoga teacher. I feel as though I should know better from my years of writing stories on nutrition and healthy eating, of giving everyone advice on how to live a healthy life. I could probably write a weight-loss article in my sleep. I know all the so-called secrets: get more sleep, eat more fibre, drink more water, fill up on vegetables, avoid sugary drinks, eat breakfast, and on and on. And the thing is, I even like healthy food. I adore kale, drink fresh fruit smoothies with abandon, prefer dark chocolate to milk, and enjoy the taste of whole grains. I’ve been vegetarian since my teens. I grew up with a garden in the backyard and real-food meals on my plate, with restaurants an occasional treat, not a regular occurrence. I don’t even drink that much, though I do have a pretty insatiable sweet tooth and a bad habit of baking things, then eating them. In short, the odds seem stacked in my favour.

      And yet. Even with all these advantages and some decent genetics (though it’s virtually impossible to tease apart nature and nurture), I can’t seem to escape the common fate of most people in the Western world. We’re inundated with brand-name diets and healthy-eating advice, with skinny celeb role models and endless scientific studies on what’s making us gain. And with few exceptions, none of us wants to be overweight. But despite all of this, despite most of us having tried to lose weight at least at some point, we keep getting fatter.

      Because of my experiences with and curiosity about the topic, a former colleague and current health editor at Canada’s Glow magazine asked me to write a story on dieting, which appeared in the summer 2012 issue. I spoke to doctors, real women with dieting experience, even a food writer who had found his own successful weight-loss formula, to get the story on why we’re gaining so much weight and why diets don’t seem to work.

      The trouble was, I had so much to say on the topic but not nearly enough space in the magazine. So I went back to my notes and to my thoughts, to some of my favourite books on dieting and healthy eating, and I expanded them. What I’ve written here is a more in-depth look at the topic of dieting than I was able to publish the first time around. I’ve looked at history, at cultural analysis, at the opinions of some of my friends, at my own experiences and at the countless stories I’ve read—and written—on dieting, on weight gain and loss, and on how our personal self-worth is affected by body image and how we look and feel.

      And what have I learned? There’s no magic trick that will get us instantly skinny and happy. Giving up on that idea is half the battle in reforming your relationship with your body. The rest is choosing how to live your life and making the decision to evolve your relationship with food, rather than letting culture, environment and food marketers decide it for you.

      CHAPTER 1:

      REAL WOMEN ON DIETING

      Modern life is a complicated thing. On top of all the other responsibilities in our lives, the pressure’s on to be

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1