5 New Diet Trends for 2018

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Here are just a few diet trends for you to think about as you try to eat and live healthier in 2018.

Losing weight is a common resolution that adults make at the beginning of a new year, and one that resurfaces once bathing suit season is on the horizon. While simply cutting calories and exercising more will usually lead to some weight loss, following a specific diet plan can help you drop the pounds more quickly. By limiting certain types of foods, or taking supplements to boost metabolism and burn fat, you can accelerate your progress and reach your goal more quickly. Here are five diets that are trending so far in 2018.

Raw Foods Diet

One of the trendiest current diets focuses on keeping things simple by eating food in its natural, raw form. The premise behind the diet is that when food is cooked, nutrients and enzymes necessary for human health are destroyed. By consuming food in its unprocessed form, you are eating it in its healthiest and most beneficial state. Food on this diet is not allowed to be cooked to temperatures higher than 118 degrees, and cannot be refined or processed in any way. Foods are allowed to be blended, juiced, and dehydrated.

 

Because the raw food diet limits your dietary intake to mostly plant-based foods, the pounds come off fairly quickly. This diet can also make you feel more energetic and improve your overall health since you are not eating sugary, fried or processed foods. One downside of this diet is that your daily coffee and tea, as well as all forms of alcohol, are not permitted. It also limits the places that you can go out to dinner or get quick snacks, since most places do not follow the raw diet specifications. However, the foods for the diet are easy to get at any grocery store or farmer's market, and there are no supplements needed.

Alkaline Diet

The Alkaline diet also has a plant-based focus. This eating plan focuses on putting only alkaline foods into your body and avoiding those that are acidic, based on the theory that it will provide a better internal balance to keep you healthy and to ward off cancer and other diseases. Because acidic foods like grains, alcohol and animal proteins are discouraged, you will lose weight quickly from a low-calorie diet of mainly vegetables, fruits, nuts, and beans.

 

Like the Raw Food diet, the Alkaline diet prohibits coffee and alcohol, which can feel very restricting for some dieters. Also, there is not an easy resource guide for alkaline and acidic foods at the supermarket or restaurant, so it requires you to remember which foods are deemed acceptable and which you should pass over. The diet encourages eating lots and fresh and healthy foods, though, so it's hard to go wrong with that.

The HCG Diet

Unlike the previous two diets, the HCG diet involves calorie restriction and a hormone supplement. With this diet, calorie consumption is limited to 500 calories per day for a period of 3-6 weeks, while simultaneously injecting yourself with HCG. This hormone, present in pregnant women and used to treat infertility in men and women, is theorized to suppress hunger, which makes the calorie restriction less difficult physically and mentally, and increases your chances of success with the diet.

 

The HCG diet limits intake of harmful fats, sugars and processed foods, and instead focuses on two meals a day of lean protein, a vegetable, fruit, and whole grain bread. As is the case with the previously mentioned diets, alcohol is not allowed. However, coffee and tea are permitted with the HCG diet. While the prospect of injecting hormones and eating so few calories per day can seem overwhelming to some dieters, this diet boasts rapid weight loss that can be hard to beat.

Ketogenic Diet

The Ketogenic diet is also a very restrictive weight loss program that focuses on severely limiting carbohydrates. This diet aims to restrict your carb intake to less than 25 grams a day, while encouraging you to eat foods that are high in healthy fat and protein. The objective is for your body to go into ketosis, a state where your body burns stored fat because there is not enough glucose being put into the body. This also works as a natural appetite suppressant, which makes achieving a lower calorie intake more successful.

 

Because the Ketogenic diet focuses on eating healthy fats and eliminating processed and refined foods, as well as burning through your fat stores, rapid weight loss can be expected with this diet. This is a difficult diet plan for vegetarians because of the carbohydrate restrictions on many of the plant-based protein sources. Also, the first few days of ketosis can be very difficult as the body adjusts, with headaches and fatigue likely. However, once the body regulates, energy levels typically increase and the weight loss begins.

Whole Foods Diet

Similar in spirit to the Raw Food diet, the goal of the Whole Foods diet is to eat foods that are as unrefined and unprocessed as possible. Less strict than the Raw Food diet, the emphasis on whole foods extends to foods that have been heated and cooked, and largely aims to eliminate refined grains and sugars, food additives and flavorings, and supplements that take the place of real fruits and vegetables. The Whole Foods diet doesn't necessarily want you to restrict your enjoyment of favorite unhealthy foods, but rather to consider a healthier version of those foods with more natural ingredients.

 

With the removal of processed and refined foods from your daily intake, weight loss will happen quickly with this plan. This diet can lead to headaches and fatigue for a few days while your body withdraws from the sugar. Additionally, this plan does not have strict daily calorie restrictions, which can be difficult for some to manage independently. However, the fact that so few foods are restricted makes this an appealing diet to follow.




Losing weight quickly can be a challenge without some drastic changes to the way that you eat. Diet plans provide strict parameters and boundaries for your weight loss journey that can help make eating healthier and shedding pounds more attainable. After you've checked in with your physician to get a clean bill of health, you'll be ready to choose the diet that is right for you and jumpstart your weight loss.

 

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