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VERIFIED CONTENTAuthor: Aleksandra Żyłowska-Mharrab, dietitian, food technologist, educator

What diets are gaining popularity in 2022? Those that help to maintain he alth, reduce climate risk, improve the quality of life of farm animals and help us listen to the needs of our bodies. Losing weight on the list of fashionable diets has gone a long way. Meet the most fashionable diets in 2022!

In 2022, "being on a diet" does not mean the same as it did 10 years ago. Diet is no longer seen in the context of weight loss. We are massively returning to the use of the original meaning of the word "diet", which refers to lifestyle and everyday, long-term choices, rather than short-term episodes of eating in a strictly defined manner that someone has imposed on us.

Reduktarianizm

Reductarianism is not really anything new, as it adapts the idea of ​​flexitarianism, i.e. limiting meat and animal products in the daily diet. The name itself is becoming very trendy.

Search engines tell us that we search for information about reductarians more often than about flexitarians. The difference that can be emphasized is that in reductarianism, concern for the welfare of animals and their dignified life is one of the motivations for limiting the consumption of animal food.

There is also much talk about the role of reducing industrial production of meat, eggs and dairy products for the environment, as it is animal husbandry and the dairy industry that are responsible for 22% of greenhouse gases.

As may be surprising for many people, plant production is not emission-free. It is responsible for nearly 11% of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, but much less is said about it.

Therefore, in reductarianism it is important to choose vegetables and fruits from local sources in order to shorten the supply chain and reduce the amount of CO2 produced when transporting food from distant corners of the globe.

Equally important, reductarians, if they choose meat and eggs, choose those from organic farms where welfare is ensured and the goal of animal life is not to gain weight as quickly as possible. Reductarians restrict meat, dairy, and eggs because:

  • a diet richer in plants ismore beneficial to he alth,
  • industrial livestock production is one of the main causes of biodiversity decline, expansive deforestation and climate change,
  • this reduces the number of animals they suffer while living on industrial farms.

What do reductarians say about themselves? "Each of us may have different motivations, but we share one common goal - a more balanced, he althy and compassionate world."

People are becoming more and more aware. More and more is known about the catastrophic conditions in which animals raised for meat, dairy cows and chickens carrying cage eggs live.

A lot is changing in this topic, supermarkets are giving up "triples" eggs, more and more plant substitutes for dairy products and meat, as well as meat with ecological certificates are available. This is due to the change in the approach to eating meat and thinking about the Earth in the idea of ​​reductarianism.

Diet to boost immunity

It won't come as a surprise to say that the popularity of the immune boosting diet is a consequence of COVID. The pandemic showed how important the body's natural immunity can be for the course of diseases, and increased interest in ingredients that really affect the immune system. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the World He alth Organization changed its dietary recommendations to make immune enhancement one of its nutritional goals.

First of all, the recommended number of portions of fruit and vegetables has changed - from 5 portions of vegetables and fruit together to 5 portions of vegetables + 4 portions of fruit per day. In an immune-boosting diet, ingredients such as vitamin D, C and A, selenium and zinc, as well as protein are important, but preferably not only from meat and meat products.

The immune-boosting diet is rich in vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, fish, herbs, spices and tea, and provides you with whole grains, grains, pulses, some meat and dairy.

It also excludes smoking and limits the consumption of alcohol, sugar and highly processed foods. In Polish climatic conditions, let's not forget about supplementation with vitamin D, which is crucial for immunity.

Let's take care of 7-9 hours of sleep a day and try to reduce stress through physical activity, being in the fresh air or meditation. It all adds up to a strong immune system.

Intermittent fasting and not only in keto

Until now, intermittent fasting (IF) was mainly used by supporters of the keto diet and in combination with it to increase the effects of weight loss. An increasing amount of research on the subjectsafety and, above all, the he alth benefits of intermittent fasting make this type of diet fashionable.

Note - a diet, not weight loss. Simultaneously with the change in trends in types of diets, the trend in thinking about what a diet is.

Indeed, by eating only in a window of several hours, losing weight may be easier. But it's not just about losing weight. Intermittent fasting has a beneficial effect on the body. It regulates the carbohydrate metabolism, reduces the risk of diabetes and heart disease, lowers the level of inflammatory markers in the body, promotes cell repair processes, and activates the so-called longevity genes, has a positive effect on the work of the brain …

The list of the scientifically proven effects of intermittent fasting is impressive. Moreover, intermittent fasting is relatively easy to use. In its most popular variant, you can eat for 8 hours a day, and for 16 only drink beverages such as water, tea and black coffee.

You choose the time period yourself, e.g. from 11 to 19, which means that you only move breakfast to a later hour, and eat the remaining meals as normal. This keeps the interest in IF growing and leads intermittent fasting to the top of the most used diets in 2022.

Anti-inflammatory diet

The growing popularity of the anti-inflammatory diet is again the result of a change in approach to nutrition and increased awareness. "Diet" is no longer just a slogan regimen. Although we still of course say "weight loss diet" or "reduction diet". In the consciousness of a growing group of people, the word "diet" begins to take on its original meaning, i.e. it is a lifestyle.

The trend towards anti-inflammatory lifestyle is driven by an ever-increasing interest in he alth, the need for prevention, not treatment, and a growing public understanding of the relationship of pro-inflammatory factors (nutritional and environmental) to diseases in the modern Western world.

Do you want to stay he althy longer? Reduce inflammation in the body. As? Avoid stimulants and eat foods rich in antioxidants. So what is the anti-inflammatory diet based on? On eating vegetables, fruits, nuts (but not peanuts) and seeds, fish that provide omega-3 fatty acids, herbs and spices, and reducing meat, dairy, sugar, grain products, processed foods, and above all highly processed foods and alcohol.

Low FODMAP

The low FODMAP diet is a diet that aims to eliminate fermented oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols from meals. Why is low FODMAP rising in popularity in 2022? Becausethe number of people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome is constantly increasing, which manifests itself with lower abdominal pain, cramps, diarrhea, gas and flatulence.

The cause of the disease is not recognized, but most people living with IBS stress that it is exacerbated by stress. The treatment of IBS focuses primarily on the elimination of irritants from food, and one of the most effective regimens is the low FODMAP diet developed in Australia, the use of which in irritable bowel syndrome is recommended by Harvard University.

What products contain FODMAP carbohydrates?

  • Dairy products - milk, yoghurts, kefirs, cheese, cottage cheese … Dairy products contain milk sugar, i.e. lactose.
  • Some fruits contain fructose or polyols. These include apples, pears, peaches, cherries, mangoes, plums and watermelons.
  • Vegetables may contain fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides. You will find them, for example, in broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, pulses, garlic and onions.
  • Sweeteners - some are high in fructose, such as honey, agave nectar, and glucose-fructose syrup. Others are polyols - e.g. xylitol, mannitol or sorbitol.

Remember that although more and more people are following the low FODMAP diet, it is not a diet for everyone. If you do not have intestinal problems, do not give up most of the FODMAPs (give up glucose-fructose syrup anytime and anywhere), because some of them are valuable prebiotics that allow the growth of a good microbiome.

Intuitive food

What is intuitive eating? The easiest way to say is that it is nutrition in accordance with the physical needs of the body. Eat when hungry and stop eating when you feel full. Without counting calories and without dividing food into "allowed" and "forbidden".

To use intuitive eating, it is necessary to build a good relationship with food, i.e. not using food to satisfy emotional needs and eating real food - rich in nutrition.

The growing popularity of intuitive food is inextricably linked with the idea of ​​mindfulness (also extremely trends in recent years), which relates, among others, to to eat in accordance with the signals that our body sends us, calmly and consciously. In order to be able to eat intuitively, one has to be able to distinguish between physiological hunger and want, and the real need of the body from emotional need. You need to know when satiety comes and when you feel thirsty.

It may all seem very simple. But why can't so many of us stop eating when we feel our stomachs stuffed to the brim? Because we drown out oursintuition. We ignore the mechanisms that nature has provided us with. When we have enough food, we just eat. And then, to lose weight, we drastically cut back on food. In both situations, ignoring intuition.

Eating intuitive at its base rejects the division of food into "good" and "bad". He rejects the approach according to which some things in nutrition should be categorically done and others categorically avoided. The idea of ​​intuitive eating says that we should eat and move with the thought of physical satisfaction and joy, not the amount of calories consumed or burned. Eating according to your intuition does not mean, however, mindlessly eating whatever you want. It means opening up to listening to the signals of the body, which finally has a chance to show what it needs.

There is a lot of sense in intuitive eating, which can be deduced from scientific research. Today it is known that each body converts nutrients into energy with different efficiency, and each of us obtains a slightly different amount of calories from the same food. Each of us has a different basic metabolism, which is difficult to precisely estimate with formulas.

People with a BMI of over 25 (which is theoretically overweight) live longer than very slim and very obese people. After a slimming diet, 95% of people return to the previous body weight before weight loss or additionally gain weight. All this shows that eating "off the card" with imposed food restrictions and categorical exclusions makes much less sense than is commonly believed.

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Diets