Losing weight and keeping it off is no easy task. Every day we’re confronted with unhealthy food choices, for instance unexpected donuts and birthday cake at the office, and that can derail a healthy diet.
Diets alone are difficult, and with the huge variety of very different, completely contradicting and unspecific diets, to figure out which one to do is like cracking the Da Vinci code. It is by trial and error that you find the right one, and most the time it is a complete waste of time. A lot of the time, diets are also far too strict or complicated and just completely unenjoyable, and result in eventual failure.
If you anything like myself, who has tried almost every diet one could think of, with little or no result, and time and time again has found that once the diet is stopped, all the weight lost is gained back quicker than ever before, it can become very frustrating and disheartening.
I do not want to slate or bad mouth other diets or dietitians and everyone has their own opinion and ideas, but I have found the first diet that worked for me and made perfect sense to me, and in my opinion is the best way forward. I introduce you to your own specific DNA diet.
Most diets are based on a theory and completely focused on losing weight etc., but they forget to find out what the body actually wants and needs, and how to get the body to general wellness and perfect working order.
With the DNA diet, through analysis of one quick and easy cheek swab, one is able to discover specific and detailed DNA information which is pertinent to nutrition and what your individual body is sensitive to, and needs to thrive.
Basically the test yields curtain genes that determine if you are at risk for certain health conditions such as high cholesterol, food sensitivities or obesity. But that’s not the end of it. You can then lower the risk through dietary and lifestyle changes.
Yes, these genes can then be switched off or on by changing your lifestyle.
Nutrigenomics is the scientific study of how nutrition interacts with our genes. This means that we can manipulate how our genes work by manipulation of our lifestyle (ie what we eat and how we exercise). Genetic testing allows us to identify the health conditions you may be prone to and then can work out nutritional interventions to reduce the risk of developing these conditions.
It tests for:
- variations linked to being overweight and obesity
- ability to lose or gain weight easily
- responsiveness to exercise
- factors affecting fat metabolism
It is then able to determine if you are more suited to a low carbohydrate diet, or a low fat diet, or a Mediterranean diet. It can then optimise your diet for better weight-loss results.
Additional tests can test for genetic variations that are known to impact our susceptibility to chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovasculardisease, osteoporosis, cancer, neural tube defects, amongst others.
On a personal level, I have spent years trying to cut down on carbs mean while my body has desperately been needing carbs. Once you get the general notion of the diet right you can already waver a little without much sacrifice, unless you strictly trying to drop weight in which case it is possible with some determination.
I have lost the most weight that I ever have while maintaining great energy levels, a strong immune system and general well being, and have kept it off even over binging months such as December – because living and enjoying life is important.
At the end of the day it is great knowing what your body really needs and can always revert back to it and build around that. I hope this has shed some light on the matter and will help you as much as it is helping me.
