Have you ever watched the nature channel? Or Animal Planet? Or a National Geographic special about animals? You might have heard something like, “The monkey’s diet consists primarily of . . . .” “Hummingbirds eat a diet mainly of . . .” “The average diet of cows in the United States is corn.” Do these shows mean that these animals went to a doctor because they wanted to lose weight? Did they buy a book because they wanted to “be buff”? Did they subscribe to a website so they could be ultra tasty? No. For some reason when we talk about what animals eat we get it right, but when we talk about what we eat, we are a little “off”. The first definition of diet is what we eat. Whatever we consume, that is our diet. There are different types of diets. There is the omnivore diet, the carnivore diet, the vegan diet, the vegetarian diet, the Pescetarian diet, the Buddhist diet, the fruitian diet, Kosher diet, Mediterranean diet. . . . I could probably fill an entire page of the different names we have given the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group. There are diets that people “go on”, there are “fad diets”, there are long term diets, there are short term diets, but whatever the case it is what we eat
Whatever we eat it is our diet. Whatever is our habitual nourishment is our diet. But society has gotten into the habit of saying things like, “I’m going ON a diet.” “I am trying the low carb diet.” “I am on a low fat diet for three weeks.” For some reason we have been programmed to think of the word diet as a bad thing. As something that is suffered through in order to get a certain result then go back to the habitual pattern of eating. I wonder when that happened? I wonder how that happened?
This is a list of items to avoid for 14 days on one of the detox diets.
Since I try to use the word diet to mean whatever it is we are eating, I try to qualify the statement if I mean a diet for a specific period of time. I say “try” because sometimes I fall back into the mainstream pattern of saying, “Oh are you on a diet?” I am not a fan of “Fad diets” that promise quick results. And sometimes I am talking about a specific “diet” –whether it is a “fad” or not, there are “diets” out there that are used for a specific time frame, as in the Grapefruit Diet or a detox/elimination diet. I don’t think anyone could survive long just eating grapefruits and the detox/elimination diet could result in a change in your diet as it is used to see what effect certain food have on the body. Once you determine any issues then the food that is causing unwanted issues could be eliminated from one’s REGULAR diet. I know people that have “been on” the Atkins Diet and I know people who follow the Atkins way of eating as their diet, their habitual nourishment.
I keep thinking of trying the detox/elimination diet to see what foods affect me in negative ways, but I have not yet. I feel my diet/my regular consumption of food could use an overhaul or at least an adjustment, but the overhaul/adjustment will be for the long haul.
Basically when I say “diet” I mean what you eat. That is a diet. A nutritional plan. A way of life. What we eat. Whether you are “on one”, “trying one”, “restricting” yours, or “blowing” it, it is really just the food you eat, so I guess we are all “on” a diet.
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