- 'Detoxing' is essential for better skin, weight loss and cleansing the body.
Come on! Your liver and your kidneys are your natural detox organs. The idea that you can flush your system of impurities and leave your organs squeaky clean is a scam. It’s a pseudo-medical concept designed to sell you things. There is not a single scientific study to date that supports the idea of 'detoxing' and 'body cleansing' with juices/liquid diets. Besides, 90% of the weight loss on a juice cleanse is water. It comes back within 5 days of resuming a regular diet!
Eat sensibly instead! Don't yo-yo between extreme diets/detoxes and french fries! Get in quality protein at each meal, eliminate junk food and all processed products (anything that is pre-packaged with a shelf life of over one month). Basically, if your great grandparents would not accept something as 'food,' don't eat it!
- Herbal Waters, Tonics and other false promises
Most of the centres that promote ‘herbal water’ also give clients a very strict and nutritionally unbalanced meal plan of no more than 500 to 800 calories a day! The herbal water is merely a crash diet disguised as a supposedly ‘healthy’ and ‘miracle’ regime.
The diet ends and the weight creeps back!
Much like detoxes, herbal water is yet another marketing gimmick that makes customers dependent on a particular product. They lose weight, they stop, they gain it back and they come to buy more! Genius from a business point of view but terrible for the health and self-esteem of clients!
- Super foods for the super rich!
Recently, the idea of 'super foods' has really caught on in Pakistan. Eating clean has become 'trendy' and 'expensive' when our drivers and maids are probably the people with the healthiest diets! They eat low on the food chain, don't indulge in any junk and often cook using desi ghee. Even more so, they seem to be miraculously in touch with their natural hunger...they eat intuitively and stop when they are full. The best part? They don't recognise 'junk' as food.
My main problem with super foods is that they promote the notion that eating right is expensive and only for the mega-rich. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a huge fan of the numerous unsung super foods that we eat on a daily basis. Cabbage, spinach, aubergines, turmeric, fresh red chilli and lentils are just some examples of locally available fresh products that are cheap, wonderfully nutrient rich and amazing for weight loss.
‘Think global, eat local’ is the key phrase here. Avocados and kiwis are great but they lose most of their nutritional value when they are shipped across the globe. Instead, eat seasonal fruits and vegetables that are locally grown and easily available. Both your body and your pocket will thank you!
Wardrobe: Peachwear and Outhouse Jewellery by Sana Hafeez Sheikh
Makeup and Hair: Qirat Baber (Makeup by QB)