For my last diet in this experiment, I have chosen to do the zone diet to contrast last week’s extreme carnivore diet. The zone diet looks at ingesting food in a more calculated approach. 

The zone diet was developed by Dr. Barry Sears more than 30 years ago that aims to reduce diet-induced inflammation. This inflammation is the reason one gains weight, becomes sick, and ages faster. The “zone” is a physiological state, suggested by Dr. Sears, where one has an optimized ability to control the diet-induced inflammation – which can be measured in clinical tests. These tests include blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, and the level of insulin resistance in the liver.

The diet itself consists of a balance of the three food groups. Visualize your dinner plate, 1/3 of it is protein; like chicken, 2/3 of it are carbohydrates; like vegetables or rice, and only a very small portion of fat too; like olive oil or some nuts. This may be familiar to you as the proportions are similar to infographics such as these:

The benefits to the zone diet are similar to the previous diets I have done, like losing excess body fat and reducing weight, but there is more of a focus on mental well-being than some of the other diets. This diet is claimed to help think faster and perform better due to the reduction of the inflammation I mentioned earlier. 

During this week, I had the chance to go back home and had my mom cook for me, because who doesn’t miss a warm, homecooked meal. Early this week, my mom prepared Almond Chicken.

To make this recipe she used:

• 2 cups Broccoli flowerets – steamed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Olive Oil
• 3 oz Boneless chicken breast (sliced)
• 1/2 Green bell pepper (chopped)
• 1 red bell pepper (chopped)
• 3/4 cup onion (chopped)
• 1 clove garlic (minced)
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes (halved)
• Some salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon sliced almonds

This recipe seemed pretty simple when I watched her make it. You first steam the broccoli, saute the other vegetables with the chicken, add broccoli, and top it with the almonds. It was a fairly basic dish with nothing special to it, but I can see myself making it rather than my mom making it for me. 

This diet overall has been very easy to follow actually, I didn’t find myself going out of my way to accommodate to it. This allowed me to easily follow the diet guidelines as I simply had to estimate the proportions of each food group. I recommend adjusting your current diet to the zone diet if it’s similar to it already.

In addition, I felt a change in my mood where I wasn’t frequently lazy and didn’t feel tired during the day. However, I did not see a change in my weight, but perhaps I needed to continue to follow this diet plan to see significant weight-loss results. To sum, I would rate the zone diet a 5 out of 5 due to it being easy to follow and not having experienced any noticeable negative effects. 

While there is no official definition, think of the carnivore diet as a diet that includes “only foods that either walked, swam, or flew,” as said by Kelly Schmidt, RD. Essentially it consists entirely of meat and animal products, excluding all other foods.

One idea behind the carnivore diet is to enter a state of ketosis, where your body is burning fat from long-term stores rather than carbohydrates that you have consumed throughout the day. With the removal of carbohydrates, it is assumed that most of one’s body fat will be lost. And by mainly eating meat, the body would be replenished with protein to build up muscle. On the other hand, with the removal of vitamin sources like fruits and vegetables, the body may have more difficulty in repair and growth of cells.

The carnivore diet has been gaining popularity as a potential anti-inflammatory diet for people with autoimmune conditions. Other benefits include aid in weight loss, mood issues, and blood sugar regulation. In fact, there have been suggestions that this diet can help one’s mental wellness. This can be seen in Mikhaila Peterson who has said that her diet of predominantly beef, salt, and water relieved her of her depression symptoms.

RD D. Rogers of the Sustainable Dish suggests that carnivore diet is often a step people take after trying the paleo and ketogenic diet. Having done both those diets now, I felt like I should try the carnivore diet this week. 

The carnivore diet can be seen in different levels of intensity, as suggested by Paul Saladino, MD. Based on his definitions of the tiers to the carnivore diet, I mostly followed tier 3. This is where I was allowed to eat meat, eggs, seafood, and dairy.

I did my best to follow to guidelines of this diet with the food provided in the Findlay Commons dining hall on the UP campus. For instance, I had scrambled eggs and grilled chicken frequently for breakfast. For lunch or dinner, I would usually have a double cheeseburger from Flipps. I made sure to remove the tomatoes and lettuce of course, but leaving the bread buns as one of my only carb exceptions.

Throughout the week, I had definitely experienced a drastic change in my mood and motivation. I often like I overate and had a heavy stomach. I had a massive decrease in motivation and energy to focus on work – potentially due to being burned out as it is almost the end of the semester, resulting in me to sleep more and work less. Due to my somewhat unpleasant journey with the carnivore diet, I rate this diet a 0/5. 

For this week, I tried out the Paleo diet. As the name suggests, the Paleo diet resembles a diet similar to that of our ancestors. Essentially, I had the diet of a hunter-gatherer from the Paleolithic era.

The idea behind this diet is a way of eating that’s more like what early humans ate because we are genetically built to eat that diet. It is believed that the human body is genetically mismatched to the modern diet that emerged with farming practices — an idea known as the discordance hypothesis.

Farming changed what people ate and established dairy, grains, and legumes as additional staples in the human diet. This relatively late and rapid change in diet, according to the hypothesis, outpaced the body’s ability to adapt. This mismatch is believed to be a contributing factor to the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease today.

To abide by the somewhat strict rules of this diet, I was allowed to eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, lean meats (preferably grass-fed animals), and fish such as salmon and albacore tuna. However, this diet restricted me to foods like grains; such as wheat, oats, and barley, legumes; such as beans, lentils, peanuts and peas, dairy products, refined sugar, added salt, potatoes, and highly processed foods in general.

Typically, I would snack on carrot sticks or berries, but one recipe I made that I really enjoyed was “rainbow chicken and veggies” from Delish. 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes
• 3 cups baby carrots
• 2 yellow bell peppers, thinly sliced
• 1 large head broccoli, florets removed
• 2 small red onions, cut into wedges
• 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
• 2 cups cooked brown rice

FOR THE MARINADE

• 1/3 cups extra-virgin olive oil
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1/4 cups freshly chopped cilantro

It is a very simple recipe I would make for lunch when I was lazy. You would simply put the marinade on the vegetables and chicken and then bake for about 30 minutes until vegetables are tender and chicken is cooked through. 

I think of all the diets I have done so far the Paleo diet is my most favorite. I have noticed an increase in energy and better mood by removing refined sugar and highly processed foods from my diet and mainly eating leans meats, fish, and certain vegetables. I also realized I had better control and management of my appetite. I wouldn’t eat until I was extremely full and I found myself being hungry less.

Overall, I had a great experience with this diet even in just the span of one week. I also didn’t find the diet difficult to maintain other than avoiding grains and legumes. But it was difficult not to cave in and eat my favorite junk foods. I give it a rating of 4.5 out of 5 and I would definitely recommend trying this diet.

Intermittent fasting has become one of the most popular diets used today. Unlike other diets, you aren’t being told necessarily what to eat but when you can eat. It makes you eat on a schedule to simplify your eating pattern while having a lower food intake. 

The two main ways one can execute this meal plan is with the 18/6 plan and the 24-hour plan. The 18/6 plan is not eating for 18 hours in a day and then eating 6 hours. Usually, someone doing this would have the schedule for no food intake from 7 pm to 1 pm, then have an eating period from 1 pm to 7 pm. One of the other types of fasting, the 24-hour plan, consists of not eating for two days in an entire week. This is usually done by not eating on Monday and Thursday. 

Both of these plans are set to balance out your food and calorie intake throughout the week. However, I thought the 18/6 plan was better suited for me, and that is the “diet” plan I followed this week. 

To achieve a consistent fasting schedule, I downloaded the application Zero. This app is specifically designed to help people have a timer of their fast, chart their progress, and keep a journal of how they feel during the fats. I found the journal aspect to be especially helpful throughout this week to keep track and achieve my fasting goals.

Being one of the most popular forms of dieting, intermittent fasting has a plethora of reasons why so many people do it. For instance, intermittent fasting is used for weight loss, increased energy, and brain and body health benefits. An example of evidence for fasting providing health benefits is studies that suggest fasting can prevent some types of cancers and improve mental clarity. Fasting has also been found to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. 

Despite this not being my main goal, weight loss is the primary reason why people start fasting regularly. Calorie intake will be lower, and your hormone levels will start to shift to promote weight loss. If you don’t overeat in your time of not fasting, weight loss shouldn’t be a problem. 

Throughout the week, I found that I was very tired and unfocused. I think this is due to the sudden change of my eating schedule that my body was having difficulty adjusting to. One reason why I believe I didn’t achieve the benefits of fasting, such as mental clarity and being more energized, is because I didn’t fast for a long enough time.

Overall, based on my experience, I would rate this type of dieting 2 out of 5. This is because of my low energy levels, becoming more unfocused, and feeling hungry most of the time. However, it is an interesting experience to test out your own limits and self-control.

As most people know, the vegan diet consists of food that isn’t derived from animals. These are mainly meats and fish, but veganism also includes foods made by animals, such as eggs and milk. This aspect made it especially hard for me this week.

My goal with this diet was to see how I would be feeling mentally rather than lose weight. I feel as though it is very frequently seen on websites and in tabloids how vegan dieting is generally healthy for the body as well as mind and spirit.

There are a number of reasons why someone would choose to follow this diet. Other than its health claims, people usually become vegan to eat more ethically and be part of a movement to stop eating animals as it is unethical. Nearly 300 million cattle and 50 billion chickens are killed for food every year. Some vegans suggest that killing these innocent animals for protein shouldn’t be allowed since plant-based substitutes exist like lentils and tofu.

In addition to eating more ethically, people may become vegan for environmental reasons. Raising all these animals for human consumption requires a lot of land space, water, and grain. They emit gases that are harmful to our atmosphere, such as methane (from flatulence). Therefore if mass animal husbandry was to reduce, it might help improve our environment.

Now, to actually discuss vegan food. Throughout this week, I did struggle to feel satisfied with the food I was eating. I think I had eaten about eight salads this week, and I got bored of them around salad number three. I did try different types of salad, with various toppings and dressing. However, salad can only go so far.

That’s why I tried my best to do non-salad dishes when I had the time. One recipe I tried this week was marinated tofu with rice. 

Ingredients list:

• 16 ounces extra-firm tofu
•  4 tablespoons soy sauce
•  3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
• 2-3 tablespoons neutral oil, such as canola

This dish is basically: cutting the tofu into cubes, combining most ingredients for the marinade, letting the tofu marinate for about 2 hours, and frying the tofu in a pan until it is golden brown on each side.

For snacks, I had to stick to cut up fruits and vegetables with peanut butter or hummus. This was mainly because I wanted to continue to eat healthily, despite packaged snacks like Doritos and Pringles being vegan friendly.

Regarding my well-being, I didn’t have much of a change in my weight, but I did feel exhausted at times, which may be due to not being satisfied with the food I would eat. However, I did feel good “inside,” so to speak. My body had less pain in general, which was a pleasant finding. 

In conclusion, I would rate the vegan diet a 3.5 out of 5. This is because it felt good to know that I was eating ethically; however, my energy was very low. Also, not being obsessed with salad was another personal issue for me. Not to mention that packaged vegan or vegan food, in general, is a lot more expensive than the regular food I buy. I would recommend people to try for themselves as it has a good cause. Hopefully, in the future, I can be able to follow this diet properly.

My first type of diet I chose to do for my experiment is the keto diet. Despite the previous belief that it is very unhealthy to have a large portion of your diet consist of fat, many people now believe that is not the case. This is because the keto diet involves drastically reducing the number of carbohydrates you eat and replacing it with fat. 

The reduction of carbs places your body into a metabolic state called ketosis. When this occurs, your body becomes much more efficient at burning fat for energy, thus leading to visible weight loss.

The efficient weight loss aspect of this diet was especially appealing to me after going home for the holidays. After having what was practically a huge feast for dinner every night, I wanted to lose some weight. 

One meal I made for dinner this week to fit this diet was zucchini noodles with shrimp. I actually enjoyed it and this has become one of my favorite meals. This meal was ideal for the keto diet as zucchini and shrimp and both very low carb. 

(Not my picture)

Ingredients list:

• 1 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined 
• 2 tablespoons olive oil 
• 4 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes 
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth 
• Juice of 1 1/2 lime 
• 3 medium zucchini, spiralized or cut into noodles 
• Salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste 
• 1 teaspoon lime zest 
• 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

This recipe essentially consists of marinating the shrimp, cooking them in a pan, and adding them to the zucchini noodles – making this very easy to make.

For other meals, I stuck to more basic recipes. For instance, I regularly had scrambled eggs and avocado toast for breakfast. For an easy snack, I had pieces of cheese or nuts, replacing my usual chips or cereal.

Other than a few dinners, most of the food I ate this week was already in my pantry. Making this diet relatively easy for me to follow.

Regarding my energy levels, I did notice more spikes of energy rather than a consistent amount of energy throughout the day. Also around the third day, I felt more tired than usual, but based on my research I believe this was due to my body undergoing ketosis.

Overall, I rate this diet 4 out of 5. I think I achieved what I set out to with this diet which was to lose some weight in a healthy manner. By the end of this week, I had lost 5 pounds. Therefore, I would recommend this diet as a healthy way to lose weight without vigorous exercising.

We all know about the various diet fads that have come and gone throughout the years. From vegan to low-fat to the Mediterranean diet, people and nutritionists have been trying to find the best diet that is most optimal for keeping the body fit and functioning. 

Certain diets also have claims of great weight loss, reducing inflammation, lowering the risk of obesity, and promoting heart health.

Personally, I’ve always been curious about this topic and wonder what is the best diet that not only helps with weight loss but also helps improve one’s energy and mood.

Therefore, for my passion blog, I’ve decided to try out a number of different types of diets myself. For every week, I will record my weight at the beginning and end of the diet as well as keep a journal of how I feel throughout the week. This will consist of whether I feel hungry, unsatisfied, full, and my overall mood. I may also include a recipe that I enjoyed for that diet.

In addition to recording my experience throughout the diet, I will provide some background context and theories that explain why people believe that diet is superior to the rest. 

I think it would also be interesting to keep track of the difficulty of maintaining each diet. If the diet is satisfying and healthy but requires a lot of effort, it may not be the most effective diet. Furthermore, some diets might require a longer time for shopping and cooking, which can be an additional burden that can prevent from following this diet.

All these different types of trending diets manipulate the amount of the primary food groups ingested; which are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, as well as the amount of food or calories consumed. 

Each diet usually tries to create a specific ratio or percentage of the amount of each food group that should be eaten in a day. For instance, there is the Zone Diet that is composed of eating 30% lean protein, 30% healthy fat, and 40% high-fiber carbs. 

The diets I plan to test out include the keto diet, paleo diet, Zone diet, 5:2 fasting diet, carnivore diet, and the vegan diet. As my last blog post, I plan to rank my experience with each diet and choose an overall best diet from my experiment, taking into account my mood, whether I was satisfied with the diet, and the difficulty of following the diet.

I do understand that there are other variables such as exercise and being mentally healthy that may affect how I feel rather than the diet itself. However, I aim to standardize my daily activities to be relatively the same in the next following weeks. Hopefully, you will enjoy reading about my experience and journey in the upcoming weeks!