Weight management - Popular diets

There are many different diets that help to assist weight management: These can be in the form of fasting, very low calorie, calorie counting groups, meal replacements, food combining and fat-burning supplements.

Fasting creates a negative energy balance which results in weight loss, it rest the digestive system and it also helps to detoxify many systems of the body.

Very low calorie diets often only consist of 800 calories a day, is fortified with the daily requirements of minerals and vitamins, is designed for obese people to achieve fast weight loss and doctors also supervised replacement bars and shakes.

Calorie counting groups help to keep the calorie intake controlled, has guidance of foods to eat which are provided and also group involvement creates accountability.

Meal replacements help to control the intake of food calorie counted shakes and meals, it removes any complexity of calorie counting for the consumer and it usually consists of 1200-1500 calories.

Food combining means that carbs are better digested in an alkali environment, proteins digest better in an acidic environment and all foods should be eaten at different times meaning they have to be separated.

Fat-burning supplements boost the metabolism which burns body fat and it also creates a thermogenic effect in the body.

However, there can be problems regarding each of these, they are:

With fasting, there is a risk of dehydration, there's a lack of energy as well as essential nutrients and it increases aches and pains, headaches, bad breath and also allergies.

Very low calorie diets create a low bioavailability of many fortified nutrients, brings on diarrhoea, constipation, nausea and fatigue and it's only a short term approach.

Calorie counting groups tend to only be a short term fix, a yoyo dieting cycle is common and the nutrient intake may be compromised.

Meal replacements bring on a lack of energy, low adherence, boredom and taste fatigue and there is a low bioavailability of many fortified nutrients.

Food combining means very restrictive meals, erratic blood sugar responses from high carbs to low carbs and it may lack vitamin A, D, B12, calcium and zinc due to the low animal consumption.

Fat-burning supplements may cause arrythmia, depression, nervousness, insomnia, or illnesses leading to strokes, seizures and heart attacks.

Nutrition - Vitamin & Mineral supplementation

Some supplements are made in laboratories whilst other supplements get their nutrients from foods (A and D). Supplements made in laboratories are made from natural precursors meaning they may be labelled as natural. Vitamins A, D, E and K are best from natural sources as they're in oils and fats.

Some people may think with vitamin B supplements that they are getting all the needed vitamins although this isn't always true as the supplements only contain 8-12 different types. A lot of vitamin C supplements are made in laboratories and usually are pharmaceutical grade ascorbic acid. Rutin/other analogs (minerals) help to buffer the vitamin and to increase the bioavailability in vitamin C that comes from natural foods.

With other nutrients and substances, minerals in the food appear a lot in complexes and supplements (minerals) are there in engineered complexes. Calcium hydroxyapatite is the only form of a natural food extract when it comes to the most popularly taken mineral supplement which is calcium.

Vitamins B, D, E and K are not present in multivitamins meaning that it can mislead people into thinking they are getting all their vitamins from multivitamin supplements. It's also worth noting that although vitamin supplementation can help, but they only help to support a diet and not make one.