What is "dieting?"
In money terms, it is a $61 billion in sales, annually. "Diet," as a noun, comprises of the kinds of food a person or animal normally eats; a special course of food a person is restricted to eat, especially for medical reasons. As a verb, it is to "restrict oneself to small amounts of food, normally to control one's weight."
It is very common to hear people say "they are on a diet" for two reasons: to lose weight or for medical reasons, i.e., bring down cholesterol, sugar, uric acid levels, or blood pressure. What is confusing is the kind of diet plan they are in. There are probably millions of diet plans out there, each intended to serve a specific purpose.
Benefits of dieting:
A lady said that she's on a diet because it has become very embarrassing to go to Tent City to buy a new dress. On the other hand, I saw a young woman in New Delhi who was so huge she can hardly fit into the hotel dining chair. But she was gleefully gorging on a cone of ice cream after a very heavy buffet dinner. Between these two extremes are people who are on a diet or who want to have one. Whatever their reasons are, dieting can benefit them in the following ways:
1. Be better nourished:
"Better nourished" is not to be filled to the gills with food but to eat in a nutritionally-balanced way. This makes your metabolism to burn your calories more efficiently resulting to the better utilization of the food's vitamins and minerals; improving your health, making your immune system to effectively ward off illnesses.
2. Have increased energy levels:
With better metabolism, more energy is available to you because your body is working more efficiently. The loss of weight means your body will not have to work as hard, allowing you to do other daily activities. You will feel more energetic allowing you to do more, resulting to more weigh loss.
3. Have improved cardiovascular health:
The heart works harder to pump blood around an overweight body. Removing some of that weight will take some strain off your heart.
4. Better digestion:
Diet plans always include daily consumption of dietary fibers, regulating your digestive tract functions, keeping bacteria to livable levels.
5. A better feeling about your body:
I knew of a 53 yr-old lady, two children, but who still has the right curves in the right places. It makes her feel so good to post a lot of her pictures in her favorite social networking site. Wouldn't you want to do the same? Modesty aside, we always feel better if we look physically better, don't we?
Cost - benefit relationship:
Dieting can be expensive or it can be cheap. But its benefits will always far outweigh the costs. We only have one body and so we have to guard it more than that of our other treasures.
