How many different diets have been developed today! Some forbid eating sweets, others fatty, others recommend alternating protein and carbohydrate days. And dozens of different subspecies. But of particular interest among them is the Traffic Light diet. This is a special food style in which products are divided into several groups. Some are the main diet and should be on the table every day. Others supplement it from time to time. In addition, there is a group of products that must be completely excluded from your diet for at least a period of weight loss.
Italian diet
"Traffic light" - a diet developed by professional nutritionists, which took into account not only the patient’s desire to quickly lose weight, but also physiological characteristics, as well as human needs for the necessary nutrients. The diet is based on a special diet.
The main advantage is that the system provides the body with complete nutrition, enriches with vitamins and minerals, but at the same time allows you to get rid of excess weight. In any case, her supporters say so. Today we need to figure out if this is true.
The essence of diet
Traffic Light divides the entire menu into three large groups. In principle, everything here is very consonant with semaphore signals:
- Red products. Even in a minimal amount they can not be introduced into the diet.
- Yellow group. Conditionally prohibited products. They can be eaten in moderation and every other day.
- Green group. Use in any quantity.
First of all, we are interested in whether it is possible, using products from the green group, to make a full and varied menu. Let's get to know the system better and draw conclusions.
Green group
The Traffic Light diet allows you to eat all vegetables except potatoes, corn, beans and peas, any mushrooms. That sounds good already. What can be included in the daily diet from this:
- Apples
- Oranges and grapefruits.
- Whole grain buckwheat.
- Dairy products, yogurt.
- Cabbage.
- Greenery.
- Vegetable oils.
- The eggs.
- Seafood.
- Carrot.
- White low-fat fish.
- Fresh cucumbers.
Diet "Traffic light" recommends giving preference to vegetables without heat treatment. So they retain more fiber and vitamins. In addition to filling the volume of the stomach and intestines, they still work like a scrub, sweeping out everything superfluous from it.
Yellow group
These products can be used, but with caution, that is, in small quantities and not every day:
- Non-nutritious drinks. This tea and coffee without additives, mineral water and soda on sweeteners.
- All protein foods. That is, low-fat meat and fish, cheese with a fat content of not more than 30%, cottage cheese not more than 4%, low-fat milk and sour-milk products.
- Sweeteners.
- Foods that contain slow carbohydrates. These are potatoes and corn, ripe legumes, bread and pasta, fruits (except grapes and dried fruits).
When building the Traffic Light diet menu, the following nuances must be taken into account:
- Chocolate can be consumed only bitter, three times a week and not more than one cube from the bar.
- All drinks exclude the addition of sugar and milk.
- We cook cereals on water, without oil and spices.
- Cheeses and cottage cheese must be eaten only in the morning.
Red group
It includes products that you just need to throw out of the refrigerator and out of your life. Everything that you buy in the store should be checked for their presence in the composition. This includes:
- Fast food. That is all street food.
- Any snacks, crackers, nuts. All that is sold in bundles.
- Any products with yeast.
- Butter and lard.
- Milk.
- Bread.
- Alcohol.
- Confectionery, especially with butter cream.
- Fat meat.
- Semolina.
- Sugar.
It seems the list is pretty impressive. Can you live without these products? Let's look at what you can cook while you are on a diet.
Individual diet
Of course, there are no ready-made solutions here. Allowed products can be combined as you wish, plus add some of the products from the yellow group. This also allows the traffic light diet. You can create a menu for the week based on the example below. The diet can include quite a lot of various dishes. If you carefully consider the recommendations of the developers, then certain conclusions suggest themselves:
- Banned oily fish. This is at least strange.
- In the first place are vegetables and fruits. But what about proteins and carbohydrates? And what should people with problem digestion do? The abundance of coarse fiber will not affect their well-being in the best way.
- Beef, rabbit meat, chicken meat are also among the harmful ones.
Needless to say, nutritionists do not agree with this decision. They believe that such a diet can not be called healthy. Such nutrition will lead to metabolic problems, to a malfunction of the endocrine system.
Sample menu for the day
If you still decide to adhere to this diet, then the daily diet should be built according to the following example:
- Breakfast. A small portion of oatmeal in the water. You can add a salad of fresh vegetables and a cup of tea.
- Snack. Usually at this time you are already at work, so just take 150 ml of low-fat yogurt or 100 g of cottage cheese with you.
- For lunch, vegetable soup, boiled buckwheat and a piece of white fish. Plus, you can 50 g of cheese.
- An afternoon snack. Two apples or an orange.
- Dinner. Seafood.
As usual, you can eat no later than 2-3 hours before bedtime. If after that you feel hungry, try to muffle it with tea or apple.
We make the menu for the week
If you take into account the principle of distribution of products and a complete rejection of sweets, it may seem that the Traffic Light diet for diabetics is simply ideal. Indeed, the goal of the diabetes diet is to prevent the development of the disease and reduce weight. By following the rules of the diet, you can ease the course of the disease, prevent complications and speed up the process of losing weight.
Focusing on a sample of the daily menu, you can build a diet for a week or two. To do this, you can include the following dishes:
- Chicken fillet broth.
- Fruit salad of orange and apples.
- Cheesecakes in the oven.
- Steam cutlet.
- Seafood salad.
- Fruit jelly.
- Pasta on the water.
- Vegetable soup with rice.
- Fish cutlet.
- Toasts with tomatoes and cheese.
- Braised cabbage.
- Omelette.
- Zucchini fritters.
- Salad of vegetables and feta cheese.
- Apple fritters.
- Fish stew.
What are the pros?
Let us now briefly about the positive aspects of the Traffic Light diet. Reviews and results of those who have lost weight allow us to draw the following conclusions:
- Weight loss is slow. This is not too much liked by the patients themselves, but completely satisfies the doctors. It is this pace - not more than 5 kg per month - that can be considered safe.
- A person is invited to rebuild his diet and switch to fractional nutrition. This makes it possible to refrain from disruptions in the evening and harmful snacks.
- There is no need for additional visits to the gym. Walking after each meal will be enough to consolidate the result.
- You do not have to constantly count calories.
Individual results
And everything seems to be fine here. In fact, a strong imbalance in nutrients is evident. And the result can hardly be called predictable. On average, men can lose 3-4 kg per month, women - up to 7 kg. That is, we can conclude that the diet "Traffic Light" for men is ineffective. They need a diet that is more balanced in protein. Then a slight decrease in fat and carbohydrates allows you to achieve the desired effect.
And now about the shortcomings
Banned butter and milk. It is very strange, because these are products necessary for the body that do not cause weight gain. Fat is in the red group, although a small amount of this product has a positive effect on metabolism.
It is unclear why you can eat sweet apples and carrots every day, but you can not eggplant and zucchini. And what does the ban on sugar look like if there is plenty of it in the same carrot? A separate perplexity is caused by the number of meals and walks. Can you afford a similar schedule? Usually only unemployed have so much free time. In general, there are more questions than answers. Whether you should try a new weight loss scheme on your own or just give up excesses of sweets and starchy foods is up to you.