The Diet Boom
Nicole Root
Comm 155
August 4, 2013`
Stephanie Tourne

The Diet Boom

“Everyone is on a diet. Women are especially interested in dieting. One out of three women is on a diet at any given time. Four out of five American women say they’re dissatisfied with the way they look. Almost half of the women in the United States are on a diet, and Americans spend over forty billion dollars a year on dieting and diet related products”. (Sea-rom, 06/2) Diets have become this must-do-in-order-to get-fit mentality. Every diet has its ingredients’ and how-to lists, which may be unique from the next. The Atkins Diet and the Slim-Fast Diet are designed for those overweight needing to loose body fat and pounds. The Atkins Diet and the Slim-Fast diet; two effective diets, are completely different but both promise to have the same end result. The Atkins diet is a high-protein, high fat and very low carbohydrate regimen. (The Free Dictionary by Farlex, 2013) The Atkins Diet claims eating as much protein or fat heavy proteins as needed or wanted to. Eating as many as 3 plus meals a day full of protein, is the main ingredient in the Atkins Diet plan. The very few rules The Atkins Diet provides is to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and to try to limit your carbohydrates to only high fiber whole grains. (The Atkins Diet, 2013) When eating foods composed primarily of protein, fat and fiber, the body produces far less insulin. When the carbs that are eaten are in the form of high-fiber whole foods, which convert to glucose relatively slowly, the blood sugar level in the body holds steady, along with the body’s energy level. The Atkins Diet even allows fatty proteins as part of your 3 meals a day. The body doesn’t crave a fast-fix energy booster in the form of sugary, starchy food; making someone less hungry at meals. (The Atkins Diet, 2013) The Slim-Fast Diet seems to be similar to the Atkins Diet in very few ways. The Slim-Fast diet explains it allows one to snack throughout the day, with Slim-Fast approved cereal bars, fruits or nuts. Skip breakfast and lunch and replace those meals with a Slim-Fast protein shake. Slim-Fast Shakes and Meal Bars provide 20% or more of the recommended daily intake for most essential vitamins and minerals and 5 grams of dietary fiber per serving. (Slim Fast, 2013) The Slim-Fast diet will provide all the shakes and meal bars, and will then provide ideas for 100 calorie snacks to eat throughout the day. This diet at least allows you to continuously snack throughout the day. This will also allow the metabolism to stay up and consistent, allowing for the burning of fat. Ending the day with a portion controlled sensible dinner; it must consist of no more than 500 calories. The Slim-Fast diet allows the dieter to pick which ever meal desired, as long as it is a sensible healthy meal. Struggling to find a meal with only 500 calories, the Slim-Fast diet plan will also recommend 500 calorie dinner recipes. Slim-Fast is best for people who need to lose about 20 pounds, which should take 8 to 10 weeks; most people are likely to have trouble sticking to the regimen longer than that. Still, many dieters use Slim-Fast products as occasional meal replacements even after losing weight to make maintenance easier. (US News, Jan 2013)
However the difference in how much or how little it is allowed to eat with both of these diets, how does one find out which diet is best for them? Understanding what each diet provides and why is extremely essential when picking a diet altogether. Adding to a diet plan a healthy physical workout plan is only going to increase the ending results faster. This in turn will allow an individual to begin having a healthy lifestyle, when adding healthy meals, and a healthy physical fitness regimen. It should not surprise anyone by now to hear that there is no “one” diet that will work for everyone. It all boils down to: what one thinks they can do? With the Slim-Fast diet,