Celebrity Nutritionist Pooja Makhija Talks About The Forthcoming Wellness Trends Of 2019

Diets and fads will keep on changing but that only goes to show how people are way more concerned about their health than ever before. Gone are the days of extra ghee and excess eating, it is all about moderation and consuming the right food. Year 2019 has a lot in store for those of us looking for health and wellness but who do we turn to when we start this journey? Thankfully, the celebrity nutritionist Pooja Makhija has made it pretty easy for us by talking about the forthcoming wellness trends, Read on to find out what she has to say.

“What never gets old in any new year is the resolution to lose weight or to be fitter in some form or another. While it’s always a good idea to have health goals, the end doesn’t always justify the means: fad diets are as common as resolutions to try them and with all this information swimming about, how do you separate the wheat from the gluten? While I don’t necessarily recommend the below mentioned diets, it cannot also be denied that they are trending in 2019, so I thought it best to give you my take on them, and let you think about it:

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting involves the practice of eating within a set time frame – like 8 hours – and then fasting for the other – the remaining 16 hours of the day. Known to help with weight loss, this has multiple permutations and combinations like:

1. Alternate day fasting: eating as much as you want on alternate days along with restricted – about 25% of your calorific needs – on others.
2. 5:2 fasting: no calorie restrictions five days of the week, and about 25% of calorie intake on the other two non-consecutive days.
3. The day-split as mentioned above.

Do note, though, that it has a high drop-out rate. Which suggests that it’s not sustainable. Also, a restrictive diet on some of the days may affect your blood sugar levels and your ability to focus on other things. Like life itself.

Ketogenic Diets

Ketogenic diets (keto for short) seem to be the new Atkins diet – a persistent, ubiquitous diet, which is not necessarily safe – and a regime on which the sun never seems to set. Keto diets are low-carb and high-fat, based on the principle that you can eat fat to burn fat. The idea is that if carbs are replaced by fat, the body will start converting it into ketones using that as a source of energy (instead of carbohydrates).

That sounds wonderful but the focus of this diet on fat ensures that you’ll be eating a lot of it. This could possibly increase your risk of developing high-fat conditions like fatty deposits on the liver, tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), tiredness, excessive thirst, light-headedness, confusion, shakiness, chills and sweating. Not that wonderful after all.

Pegan Diets

This is the relatively newer kid on the block: the meat of paleo diets combined with the benefits of veganism. A Pegan Diet, in other words, is a plant-based, low-fat diet with 25% protein (meat, poultry, eggs) from healthy, organic sources, and also includes grains like black rice and legumes. While it is being tried with limited success, for me this diet is a bit restrictive with no dairy, no gluten, and no access to ‘regular’ carbs.

No Diet

But instead of trying trendy diets this year, may I recommend no diet at all? And making healthy living part of your life? How about exercising regularly and drinking lots of water (if water is boring, you could always try chaas, vegetable juice or even the simple nimbu paani flavoured with Sugar Free Green)? You could also avoid oily/fried food and eat at home as much as possible, as well as reducing the intake of oversweet desserts (or making them with Sugar Free Green). And getting lots of sleep (adequate sleep is linked to weight loss) as well as eating every two hours for better metabolic functioning? How about making permanent changes to your life to get permanent results?

You can’t go off a diet, if you weren’t on one to begin with.” – Pooja Makhija