Let’s start this chapter by looking at the difference between nutrition, diet and dieting.

Nutrition focuses on how food affects the growth, maintenance, reproduction, health and disease of an organism. Diet is the sum of the foods consumed by such organism. Dieting is often seen as the practice of eating certain foods to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight. Dieting can also be used to improve health and prevent/fight almost every disease.

Our diet as humans has gone through several changes throughout history. Thousands of years ago our dietary modifications were triggered by changes in our environment such as long droughts and the Ice Age. Most recently, changes in our diet have been the result of globalization, cultural appropriation, and the dissemination of thousands of theories regarding diet and nutrition.

There are more diets out there than we can count, and new ones emerge every year. We have the vegetarian diet, the vegan diet, the paleo diet, the blood type diet, the cookie diet, the cotton ball diet, and the cigarette diet. That last one was prescribed by many doctors in the 1920’s, as an approach to lose weight and deal with food cravings.

We know of countless diets with opposing theories and approaches. Most of them have benefited thousands of people throughout the years. They all have their own benefits and disadvantages. Some diets work for some people and others don’t. Some diets are more convenient, affordable, or socially acceptable than others. This may be due to location, personal constitution and cultural settings. It is important to differentiate between diets that are effective, and those that aren’t.

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The Problem with our Habits

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Diets, Fad Diets, and Dietary Lifestyle Changes

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