Dieting isnt all its cracked up to be. For most people, strict rules about what to eat actually perpetuate the very issues they claim to solve.

In the scientific literature, dieting has been shown to be associated with a greater risk of binge eating, long-term weight gain and even eating disorders.

If youve ever dieted, you likely understand through your own experience their cyclical and counterproductive nature. One minute youre eating well and the next minute you find yourself feeling completely out of control around food. What diets dont tell you is this is exactly what they set you up for.

Dieting is any food plan or rigid health paradigm that dictates exactly what you eat, when you eat it and how much you eat. Theres a significant difference between practicing gentle nutrition and dieting. Having a gentle concern and awareness about what, when and why youre eating and mindfully paying attention to cues of hunger and fullness are completely appropriate behaviors for long-term health and wellness.

But dont fall into the trap of dieting in any form even when it is masqueraded as healthy lifestyle change. If anyone is telling you exactly what to do with your eating, leaving no wiggle room for taste, enjoyment, cultural values, celebrations, etc., chances are good its a diet and you should run the other way.

So, if youre ever tempted to jump on a diet bandwagon, heres a list of what top nutrition experts wish you knew about dieting.

1. Diets arent sustainable. Clients often come to me claiming they have no willpower or feeling like a failure, but it's the diet that has failed, not them. Our bodies aren't meant to be deprived of food, physically or emotionally, according to dietitian Rachael Hartley.

2. Diets take away your power. Diets farm out your eating decisions to someone else, and in so doing, completely disrupt your ability to listen to your own body, turning healthy eating into a bigger struggle than it needs to be. To do well with food and eating takes connecting with your body and listening to its hunger and fullness signals and making your appetite work for you, according to dietitian Adina Pearson.

3. Diets miss the mark of whats truly important health-wise. "Healthy foods" eaten in a limited, restrained or obsessive way are just as damaging to our health and well-being as a diet where "unhealthy" food is consumed in excess. There are no good or bad foods, and eating certain foods does not make you good or bad.

It's also key to consider other lifestyle habits like sleep, stress and movement in context of how you eat. None of these exist in a vacuum, according to dietitian Cara Harbstreet.

4. Dieting is not a path toward happiness or peace. So often when you see an ad for a diet (or "lifestyle" change) it comes with the promise that this plan/program/supplement will result in happiness (along with other unrealistic outcomes).

But the truth is, dieting takes up valuable mental and emotional space in order to negotiate food choices, follow food rules and place conditions on when, what and why you can eat. This mentality teaches us that our own internal wisdom cannot be trusted, and our only hope to create long-lasting change is to be more strict and have more willpower.

Not only does this not work from a physiological standpoint, but it wears us down mentally and emotionally until ultimately we cannot follow the "diet" any longer. Failing at a diet makes us feel like we are failures and erodes our self-esteem, confidence and self-worth. The negative impact dieting has on our mental and emotional well-being far outweighs any alleged physical health benefits, according to dietitian Ander Wilson.

5. Diets ignore one of the most important tenets of overall health pleasure. Part of our health and well-being is experiencing pleasure, and one of the ways we can achieve this is through enjoying and savoring fun foods, according to dietitian Kara Lydon.

6. Diets take us further from our body's internal wisdom. Diets teach us to lose trust instead of trust ourselves with food. The foods that diets impose limits or restrictions on are the very foods that will feel more attractive and powerful, leading often to overcompensation at some point when off the diet. When we have a theoretical box of "off-limits" foods, they will work tremendously well for soothing and pleasure when we are vulnerable, which can be helpful in the moment, but in the long run this causes more distrust and fear of food, according to dietitian Sumner Brooks.

7. Its never too late to give up dieting and/or the dieting mindset. Even if you've been dieting half your life, it's never too late to ditch the dieting mindset. It's so freeing to distance yourself from the mentality of a culture obsessed with dieting and analyzing the morality of every "good" and "bad" food. There are no good or bad foods food is just food. It's never too late to embrace that shift away from dieting, according to dietitian Lindsey Janeiro.

Avoid the common mistakes people make when pursuing health and wellness. Choose foods, activities, behaviors and mentalities that enhance overall health and make you feel balanced and whole. Dont fall for the myth that dieting will lead to peace or health because it doesnt work.

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What nutrition experts wished you knew about dieting - Connectstatesboro

Laura Morgan, WUSA 12:32 PM. EDT June 09, 2017

Nina El-Chebli, RD, LDN, is the registered nutritionist at the Giant in Rockville, MD (Photo: WUSA)

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA9) - Nutritionists are not just for the wealthy. Select Giant grocery stores have them on-sight to help you shop!

With conflicting health information out there, the nutritionists at Giant make it easy to navigate the store. They all have degrees in dietetics or nutrition sciences, and can advise you on your health needs. Nina El-Chebli, the nutritionist at the Giant in Rockville, has a background in maternal and child health. She can help your family be healthier, while staying in your budget.

From satisfying salads to proven diets that have been around for decades, the nutritionists will offer suggestions that work for you. Min Krishnamurthy at the Alexandria location is an advocate for the Mediterranean diet. This way of eating has been around for half a century, and has been found to lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Want more information? A consultation with a nutritionist only costs $25, and then you're given a $25 Giant gift card. Get shopping!

This article is sponsored by Giant.

For more great health tips, follow Great Day Washington on Facebook and Twitter!

2017 WUSA-TV

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Shop with a nutritionist at Giant - W*USA 9

Friday, June 9, 2017 at 6:49 a.m.

Vista del Mar used to have two lanes in each direction. Now it has one. Residents say the change has adversely affected their commute times though at, say, 11 a.m., when this photo was taken, the street is fairly empty.

Hillel Aron

Los Angeles City Hall's policy of building bike lanes and eliminating car lanes for the purpose of getting cars to drive slower (thereby making streets safer) has met more and more resistance. Two year ago, Silver Lake erupted into a near civil war over Rowena Avenue's"road diet" a project that changed the street from two lanes in each direction to one. Detractors said it caused a serious bottleneck in traffic. More recently, City Councilman Paul Krekorian called into question a plan to add bike lanes and reduce car lanes on Lankershim Boulevard, in North Hollywood.

Now there's a growing backlash againstan ambitious road diet plan in Playa Vista, the sleepy little beach neighborhood near LAX that's recently been dubbed "Silicon Beach" for its proliferation of tech start-ups. The city plans to eliminate car lanes on four Playa Vista streets to make the streets safer for bicyclists, pedestrians, and, in the case of Vista del Mar, for people parking their cars and crossing that street to go to the beach.

The Vista del Mar road diet was recently completed; whereas the street used to have two lanes in each direction, it now has only one, with diagonal parking on the east side of the street. Some local residents are incensed.Susanne Madden, whose husband is a doctor at Cedars Sinai in Beverly Hills, says it's added 20 minutes to his morning commute. She says for other locals, it's added nearly an hour.

"It has caused a nightmare for everyone that commutes to their jobs," Madden says. "Its hurting families, punishing hard-working people who are just trying to get to work."

The Playa Vista road diet plan's Vista del Mar reconfiguration was recently completed. The rest of the plan is still underway.

Courtesy City Councilman Mike Bonin's office

Last week, Madden helped start a Change.org petitiontitled "One Lane Madness in Playa del Rey," reading in part:

Reducing major arteries like Vista del Mar, Pershing, Jefferson, and Culver to one lane each way will be absolutely disastrous. The traffic going to and from work is virtually intolerable now; reducing lane capacity is nothing short of lunacy.

The petition, which now has more than 2,300 signatures, got a boost from tech entrepreneur Peter Pham, who not only signed the petition but tweeted his support:

Chris Sacca, a recentlyretired venture capitalist who was not only an early investor in Twitter and Uber but was also a guest star on the TV show "Shark Tank," tweeted his disgust for the road diets:

A spokesman for City Councilman Mike Bonin said, in an email, "The Councilmember has been speaking with leaders in L.A.'s tech community during the past week and is going to continue gathering input from them, as well as neighbors and other stakeholders in the area, to look for ways to continue to improve the projects as the pilot phase for these projects moves forward."

Department of Transportation spokesman Bruce Gillman says the lane closures were something that residents wanted.

"Weve been working with the community for a couple years, and these are the improvements people have been asking for," Gillman says. "We did these things because of the safety reasons. It is a pilot program, and well take another look at it at some point in time."

Playa Vista resident and wetlands activist Marcia Hanscom loves the changes. She says Vista del Mar was a seriously dangerous street.

"Most of the time there was like a freeway going through our little beach village," Hanscom says. "You were taking your life into your hands trying to walk across the street."

Hanscom says the road diet only affects traffic during rush hour and that commuters who are driving through the area can take the 405 freeway or Sepulveda Boulevard. She's started her own Change.org petition in support of the road diet. So far, it only has 323 signatures.

Madden says she has a theory for why that petition isn't gaining traction.

"Theres a handful of supporters who think traffic is dangerous," Madden says."They tend to be people who bike or are retired, and tend to make whatever trips they make not during rush hour." Despite data that suggests the Rowena Avenue road diet reduced traffic collisions, Madden and others remain skeptical that road diets actually work.

"The idea that you can legislate recklessness and stupidity by making everyone drive at a snail's pace is crazy," she says.

The Department of Transportation, by the way, has stopped using the term "road diet." They now prefer the phrase, "road configuration." Says department spokesman Gillman: "No one likes to go on a diet, right?"

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Silicon Beach Fights Plan to Reduce Car Lanes and Add Bike Lanes - L.A. Weekly

June 9, 2017

By: Tracey Bridcutt, Adventist Record

A book on red meats impact on health and the environment, which includes the work of two Adventist dietitians, won first prize in in its category at this years Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

Carol Zeuschner, from the Sydney Adventist Hospital, and Angela Saunders, from Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing, together with Kate Marsh, from the Northside Nutrition Clinic in Sydney, wrote a chapter in a 400-page reference book entitled Impact of Meat Consumption on Health and Environmental Sustainability, which was produced by Curtin University in Western Australia.

The book won the Sustainable Food category at the Gourmand Awards, which were presented in Yantai, China, May 26-29. It was at these awards that another Adventist dietitian Sue Radd was announced the winner of the Best Health and Nutrition cookbook in the world for Food as Medicine: Cooking for Your Best Health.

Zeuschner said it was very exciting to find out that the book that she, Saunders and Marsh had contributed to had won the top prize.

It was quite a shock, a very nice shock, she said.

Their chapter was entitled: Red Meat and Health: Evidence Regarding Red Meat, Health and Chronic Disease Risk. Other chapters were written by health professionals and academics from around the world, including the United States, Zimbabwe, the Netherlands, Bangladesh and Brazil.

We were trying to show the health impacts of a high red meat diet and the fact that it contributes to obesity, some types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke, Zeuschner said.

The focus of vegetarian nutrition has often been whats missing, what is the risk of a vegetarian diet? But we were trying to flip that on its head and say what are the advantages of eating a plant-based diet?

The dietitians looked at vegetarian, vegan and other diets that are predominantly plant-based.

We looked at all those styles of eating and found overwhelming evidence that they are protective for health, Zeuschner said.

Saunders said there is an enormous interest in plant-based diets, with more and more evidence that underpins our amazing health message.

We can be very confident as we share with our communities the latest evidence on the importance of eating more plant foods and less meat, she said.

The science is complex but the solution is simpleeat more plants. Its interesting to see how vegetarian diets are becoming more and more mainstream and trendy, Zeuschner said. It would be a pity if our youth and older members turned their backs on our health message just as the world is embracing it.

Each of the three dietitians has previously published in the area of vegetarian nutrition, including in the Medical Journal of Australia in 2012.

See more here:
More Adventist Winners in World Cookbook Awards - Adventist Review

Eating healthy is hard work, so it's no surprise that manyof us have tried a shortcut or two at some point, hoping for speedyresults.But some of these alleged nutritional quick-fixes aren't all that useful, and a handful of them can even be dangerous.

Here's a look at the most insidious food and nutrition myths, along with the science that debunks them.

1. Myth: You should never 'cheat' on a diet.

Truth: It's perfectly fineto go off your healthy eating plan every once in a while,Nichola Whitehead, a registered dietitian and nutritionist with a practice in the UK, tells Business Insider.

"It's alright to overeat occasionally," says Whitehead. "It's overeating consistently day in and day out over the long term that causes weight gain."

If you've managed to switch from a diet heavy in red meat and processed carbohydrates to eating mostly vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins, you've already done the majority of the work, Whitehead says.

2. Myth: Counting calories is the best way to lose weight.

Truth: Althoughcounting calories can be a useful tool in a bigger toolkit for weight loss, it is not a perfect solution for healthy eating, especially when it's used in isolation.

That's because restricting calories doesn'ttake into account all the aspects of a food that are required to fuel your body, from protein and carbohydrates to vitamins and minerals.

Whiteheadsummarises the problem this way: "While calories are important when it comes to losing, maintaining, or gaining weight, they are not the sole thing we should be focusing on when it comes to improving our health."

3. Myth: Eating low-fat food will make you lose fat.

Truth: A low-fat diet doesn't necessarily translate into weight loss.

In aneight-year trial involving almost 50,000 women, roughly half the participants went on a low-fat diet, while the others did not.

The researchers found that the womenon the low-fat plan didn't lower their risk ofbreast cancer,colorectal cancer, orheart disease.

Plus, theydidn't lose much weight, if any. Newrecommendationsshow that healthy fats, like those from nuts, fish, and avocados, are actually good for you in moderation. So add them back into your diet if you haven't already.

4. Myth: Cleanses and detoxes are a good way to jump-start a diet.

Truth:No one needs to detox.

Unless you've been poisoned, you have a built-in, super-efficient system for filtering out most of the harmful substances you eat. It's made up of two toxin-bashing organs: the liver and the kidneys.

Ourkidneysfilter our blood and remove any waste from our diet, and ourliversprocess medications and detoxify any chemicals we ingest. Paired together, these organs make our bodies natural cleansing powerhouses.

Juice cleanse? No thanks.

5. Myth: Adding a supplement to your weight-loss plan is a good idea.

Reuters

Truth:Decades of research has failed to findsubstantial evidencethat supplements do any significant good. On the contrary, some of them can do significant harm.

The most dangerous types of supplementsare those related toweight loss, muscle building, and sexual performance, according toHarvard Medical School professorS. Bryn Austin, who spoke on a recent panelorganised by the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

These supplements are "the most lawless of all the categories and where the most problems turn up," Austinsaid.

6. Myth: A diet that works for one person should work just as well for others.

Truth: No two bodies are the same, sothere's no single best diet.

Everything from an individual'sgenetics to theirtaste preferencesand even theirschedule can influencethe type of healthy eating plan that works for them.

The most important factorto look for ina healthy eating plan,studies suggest, is a routine youcan stick with. This canmean trying out a few different options until youfind one youlike and can maintain.

7. Myth: Egg whites are healthier than whole eggs.

Truth: People tend to avoid whole eggs because of their high cholesterol content, but recentresearchsuggests that the cholesterol from our dietsdoesn't have much of an effecton the level ofcholesterol in our blood.

Most of the early research suggesting thatcholesterol consumption was unhealthy was done in rabbits, who don't eat any animal products.

8. Myth: Avoiding gluten is a good way to keep your digestive system healthy.

John L/Yelp

Truth: Unless you're among the 1 percent of Americans who suffer from celiac disease, glutenprobably won't have a negative effecton your body.

Studies show that most people suffer from slight bloating and gas when they eat, whether they consume wheat or not.

9. Myth: Almond milk is healthier than regular milk.

Truth: Alternatives to dairy aren't always nutritionally superior.

Compared with a glass of low-fat milk, which has about 8 grams of protein, almond milkhas none.

Plus, most of the vitamins in almond milk are added duringthe production process, which some studies suggest can make it harder for the body to absorb and hold onto the nutrients.

Soy milk, on the other hand, is roughly on-par with low-fat milk, serving up the same amount of protein plus some naturally occurring micronutrients from soy beans.

10. Myth: Juices are a good replacement for meals.

Truth:Whilejuice has some vitamins and in some cases even a small amount of protein, research shows that thebest way to get those nutrientsis toeat a balanced diet full of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.

More importantly, juicing fruit removes most of thefibre, which is the key ingredient that keeps you feeling full until your next meal.

This is one of the reasons calories from sweetened beverages are often referred to as 'empty calories', since they can increasehunger pangs and mood swingsand leave you with low energy levels.

11. Myth: You should steer clear of MSG.

Will Wei, Business Insider

Truth: Monosodium glutamate is an ingredient added to many foods to enhance their flavour, and it's completelysafe to ingest.

MSG is often associated with a series of symptoms including numbness at the base of the neck anda general sense of fatigue that are commonly lumped together and called Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.

Eating too much, regardless of the amount of MSG, is the more likely culprit here.

12. Myth: Microwaving your food destroys its nutrients.

Truth: 'Nuking' fooddoes notrob it of nutrients.

Microwave ovens cook food using energy wavesthat cause the molecules in food to vibrate quickly, building up their energy as heat.Some nutrients begin to disintegrate when heated, whether from a microwave, a stove, or oven.

But since microwave-cooking times are typically shorter than oven-cooking times, microwaving something may actuallykeep more of itsvitamins intact.

13. Myth: Chia seeds, apple cider vinegar, and mushrooms are superfoods.

Truth: While certain foods have more health benefits than others, there is no legal or medical definition for what counts as a'superfood'.

Nutritionists and public-health expertsrarely use the term. So if anyone startstossing that word around, there's probably a good chance they're not as knowledgeable as they claim.

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

More from Business Insider:

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13 Diet Myths That Are Doing More Harm Than Good - ScienceAlert

Did you know that heart disease is the number-one killer in the U.S., followed closely by cancer? Approximately 600,000 people die of each of these diseases annually, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Stroke, diabetes and Alzheimers disease are also among the top-10 killers.

All of these diseases are preventableand all of them are related to lifestyle.

A plant-based whole-foods diet is a powerful way to help prevent and even reverse these and other chronic, fatal diseases.

Lets look at the number-one killer. Researchers offered 198 patients with heart disease a program that encouraged the consumption of a whole-foods, plant-based diet.

Of the 89 percent of patients who complied with the diet, 81 percent experienced improvement, and 22 percent experienced a complete reversal of their heart disease.

Another study examined over 44,000 people and found that vegetarians had a 32 percent reduced risk of hospitalization and death from heart disease.

A plant-based diet also prevents cancer. Researchers studying 90,000 women concluded that those who ate a plant-based diet had a 15 percent reduced risk of all forms of breast cancer and a 34 percent decreased risk for one particular type of breast cancer.

Plant-based diets also reduce the risk of prostate cancer, female-specific cancers and, in fact, according to the study, Vegetarian Diets and the Incidence of Cancer in a Low-risk Population, published in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, plant-based diets reduce the risk of all cancers.

Plant-based diets are also efficacious in weight loss and reducing obesity, preventing and reversing diabetes, and promoting a healthy gut microbiome.

High consumption of plant foods is associated with a reduced risk for hip fractures and Alzheimers, feeling calmer and happier, and remaining disease-free later in life.

A low-fat plant-based diet also results in longer telomeres, the bits of DNA associated with younger biological age and longer lives.

The human experience behind these statistics is compelling. Most of us have lost loved ones to diet-related preventable diseases. When I think about the fact that 17 percent of U.S. children are obese, or that rates of childhood diabetes are skyrocketing, or that hypertension is rising among children, I know there are real children behind the facts, real families experiencing major disruptions in their lives.

In addition to health benefits, shifting our diet also benefits Earth, since animal agriculture is a major driver of our most dire environmental threats. In fact, according to the article Livestock a Major Threat to the Environment, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, livestock creates more greenhouse gas emissions than does vehicles.

One reason for this is that animal agriculture is very resource intensive. Animals grown for food and the plants to feed them occupy about 30 percent of the worlds total land surface!

Much of that land surface is pasture, but 33 percent of global land fit for growing crops is used to grow animal feed.

Feeding those crops to animals instead of people results in a significant loss of human food.

For example, if you used the 10.8 pounds of corn required to produce a pound of beef and made food for humans with it, you could make over 7.5 gallons of hominy or 235 tortillas.

Given that our global arable land is finite and our human population is growing, doesnt it make sense to feed our grain directly to humans?

Water is another resource of great concern, with meat alone accounting for 30 percent of water used in the U.S.

Yet at the height of the recent drought in California, there was a significant outbreak in the press of stories about the water consumption of one of Californias plant crops: almonds. Most of the stories declared that it takes 1.1 gallons of water to produce one almond. Other plant crops were also mentioned in some of the articles, but the big focus was on almonds.

Interestingly, most of the articles failed to mention the real water guzzlers: animals being raised for food.

We could grow about 409 almonds with the 450 pounds of water it takes to grow the meat in a quarter pound hamburger. In fact, you would get almost four and a half cupsmore than a quartof almonds for the same water as that quarter pounder.

While many people would think nothing of downing one or two quarter-pound burgers in a single meal, I dont think anyone could eat more than a quart of almonds in one sitting!

One good resource for more information on this topic is The Water Footprint of Food, published by Grace Communications Foundation.

Outputs of animal agriculture are also disturbing. Farmed animals in the U.S. produce about 130 times more waste than humans in our country do, about five tons of waste per year for each human.

Pollution from this waste makes its way into the land and water in the form of heavy metals, bacterial and viral pathogens, parasites, pharmaceuticals, detergents, disinfectants, excess nitrogen and other pollutants.

Perhaps the most alarming outputs, however, are the copious amounts of extremely potent greenhouse gases released by the production of meat, eggs and dairy for the plates of consumers.

Animal agriculture is the source of 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, a larger share than all transportation combined.

Most of the greenhouse gases produced by animal agriculture are far more warming than carbon dioxide. The average passenger car releases 4.7 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.

In comparison, one dairy cow releases 75.92 metric tons of methane per year.

That is already a lot more greenhouse gas than the average passenger car, but when you factor in the 72:1 warming potential of methane to carbon dioxide, that one cows methane emissions have contributed well over 1,000 times more warming than the car.

There is hopeful news, however, since the most copious greenhouse gases released by animal agriculture (methane, black carbon, nitrous oxide) leave the atmosphere much more quickly than does CO2.

While it is doubtful that any reduction in carbon dioxide emissions will be sufficient to turn around global warming in time, reducing these shorter-lived climate forcers can have a significant impact on climate change.

Reducing consumption of animal products, or going all the way to veganism, could result in significant reductions in an individuals contribution to climate change and other environmental disasters, and can have tremendous positive impacts on our health.

Each of us has the capacity to make a significant difference with our food choices. I think thats pretty empowering.

Excerpted by permission from Sensational Salads to Cool the Earth, by Beth Love, published by Wholeness Works Publishing, 2016.

Click here for two recipes by Beth Love: Cucumber Salsa and White Bean Stuffed Avocados and Watercress Salad with Spring Veggies and Lemony Seed Dressing.

Chef Beth Love has been preparing delicious whole foods for over 40 years, and loves to empower people to make dietary changes that improve their well-being and make a positive contribution to the world. One division of her business, Tastes Like Love, offers culinary classes and workshops, group programs, cookbooks, and other resources to support people in reclaiming their health and reducing their risk of disease through the adoption of a whole foods, plant-based diet.

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This is How a Plant-Based Whole-Foods Diet Will Improve Your Life - Massage Magazine