I’ve been using the word diet a lot and I wanted to clear up what I mean by that. When most people hear “diet” images of infomercials and various names come to mind: Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, South Beach, and Atkins to name a few. And it’s no wonder; everywhere we look there are foods labeled as such, telling us usually that they are low in calories. The word has roots back to the Greek diaita which meant “way of life” including food and diet, as well as other habits that people lived their lives, usually prescribed by some physician. This was morphed into diaeta in Latin which mean “prescribed way of life.” The 13th century French were the first to use this word to refer specifically to “regular food” with the word diete, and by the mid-15th century the word diet was used to refer to a regimen of food regulated by a physician or medical rules. The 1960s was when food manufacturers began using the word as an adjective for labeling food, thus beginning monikers like Diet Coke.

The reason I like to make a distinction between dieting and a diet is that there is plenty of evidence that shows dieting is not sustainable. When someone says they are dieting or on a diet, it implies that it is temporary, short-term to reach some kind of goal, usually loss of weight. It also tends to imply some kind of extreme change, whether it be eliminating all carbs or limiting yourself to buying prepackaged and portioned meals from a supplier. I’m not saying that these dieting techniques don’t lead to loss of weight or some kind of  change, but studies have shown that because these lifestyles are not sustainable, people tend to gain the weight back, and in some cases gain more weight back than they lost. For years, doctors and businesses have looked for dieting techniques that lead to sustainable weight loss and other health benefits. However, if something is sustainable, then wouldn’t it seem silly to call it dieting? Wouldn’t it be more of a lifestyle or way of living? The meaning of the word has morphed throughout the centuries just as our idea of medicine has changed greatly.

This is why I think it’s important to make the distinction between dieting and a diet. I like to think of a diet as a way of life, harkening back to its original meaning. It needs to be sustainable. One of the ways to make things more sustainable is to avoid restricting oneself, as this tends to not be as sustainable. This was something that we talked a lot about during Culinary Medicine and emphasized with the community members during our cooking demonstrations. What evidence do we have to suggest that changing the way we think of a diet can lead to sustainable changes with real health benefits? The Mediterranean Diet is just such an example. A diet and lifestyle that emphasizes incorporating health choices into your diet as opposed to restricting. The only diet that has been shown to have measurable health benefits, including disease prevention. We’ll discuss The Mediterranean Diet next.