Dieting: Eating for long and healthy life

Dieting is well past being a Fad. Diet plans, from being formally prescribed by doctors and in counselling sessions by nutritionists, are now informally available through selfhelp books and are very freely available on the internet. It is no longer the need of the medically ill or the fashion conscious; dieting has found its way into the lives of everyone, young and old, who wants to maintain a healthy life by eating less and eating right.
Being overweight is not just about looks, but also encompasses a wide array of medical and emotional problems. It is certainly a chronic condition that can lead to medical risks. Excess weight lowers glucose tolerance and increases sugar in the blood, leading to diabetes. There can be increased pressure on arteries that can damage the heart and kidneys leading to hypertension. The extra weight of the body wears down the cartilage and bones, thus giving rise to arthritis. 
The dieting trend has given rise to many new business ideas, from book-writing to wellness stores. The popular Atkins Diet, which recommends a meal plan of eating only proteins, found in foods such as cheese, soya and meat, to the exclusion of carbohydrates such as rice, potatoes and anything that was refined or white, sold millions of copies and soon Atkins food packs and snack bars became available in all wellness stores. 
There are many theories for the diet conscious. The South Beach Diet talks about controlling the glycaemic index (sugar level) in food. The General Motors Diet suggests a seven-day plan of fruits one day, veggies on the second, milk and banana on the third and so on.
Detoxication plans that prescribe specific quantities and food types to remove toxins from the body. Ayurveda offers some options for detoxing too. The 'Panch karma' routine is about doing five kriyas to create balance in the body. This ancient Indian science believes that the human body is made up of three substances — Pita, Vata and Kappha — and balancing the three is the key to leading a healthy and risk-free life. Ayurveda spas sprawling in hundreds of acres in Kerala and Bangalore attract hundreds of foreign tourists every year.
Calorie-counting theories recommend the ideal calorie requirements for men as being between 1,800 and 2,200 calories a day and for women at 1,500 to 1,800. All food consumed in excess of this gets stored in body as fat. In contrast to starving to maintain that ideal weight, there are books such as Dine Out And Lose Weight and Eat Yourself Slim, which advise eating frequent, small meals to maintain a high metabolism that can help weight loss.
With life expectancy going up by more than 20 years and a prediction of human beings living till their 80s, geriatrics, which is a field of medicine dealing with promoting health and preventing disease, is assuming new proportions. Research is now talking about slowing down ageing for human beings to live even longer and healthier.
Dieting as a concept of staying off food and starving to achieve that mean, lean look is being replaced by eating right to live longer and healthier.
The dieting trend has given rise to many new business ideas from book writing to wellness stores. The popular Atkins Diet that recommends a meal plan of eating only proteins such as cheese, soya and meat to exclusion of carbohydrates such as rice, potatoes and anything that was refined or white, sold millions of copies and soon Atkins food packs and snack bars became available in all Wellness stores