The Honey Diet: will a spoonful a night really put you on a new, healthier life track?
It’s becoming more and more apparent that people want a quick fix to their eating woes. Everyone these days seems to be on one diet on another. In fact, it would seem that we learned nothing from the dieting crazes of the ’80s and ’90s. For better or for worse, everyone still wants the magic solution that will keep them slim, trim and happy.
Now of course, you can add honey to the list of miracle ingredients that will take the pounds off. Yes people, it’s the Honey Diet.
I’m not making this up, it’s a real thing. (If “real thing” is defined as having a book written about it.) “The Honey Diet” by Mike McInnes is pretty much what it sounds like: a book dedicated to telling you about how honey is going to make you lose weight. In fact, here’s the prompt for the book on the publisher’s website: “Just a spoon full of honey is all it takes to lose weight according to the sweetest, easiest diet. Fall asleep and the weight will fall off you. It couldn’t be simpler or easier.”
Drink an elixir of honey in the morning and a spoonful at night (among other things) and you’ll shed those hard-to-lose pounds! Ah yes, because all you have to do to maintain a healthy diet is ingest one magic ingredient and then sleep. No other work required.
When it comes down to it, the diet is about more than honey. It’s about cutting out processed sugars (which you should be doing), avoiding junk food (again, something your body wants you to do), eating breakfast (yes) and drinking lots of water, among other things. These are all things that a healthy person does. In fact if the book weren’t branded in a diet tone, this would all read: eat normal food, stay away from junk food and stay hydrated.
The negative aspect here isn’t the honey, because honey after all does a whole lot of good for your body; it’s no wonder humans have been consuming it for thousands of years. The problem with a book like this is that it focuses on one sole ingredient, sensationalizing a wonder food and making it seem that if you were only downing spoonfuls of honey everyday you would be as small as you wanted to be. Health isn’t just about being skinny and a diet isn’t just about eating one essential ingredient.
I’ll make this easy for you: You don’t need to buy diet books.
You need to eat real, whole foods, cut out the processed stuff, and eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible. Eat the “bad” stuff in moderation. Cook your own food. Be active. Don’t go to fast food chains. No one ingredients is going to be a solve all and make you healthy overnight. You have to think about what you eat in a holistic way. But yes, honey can be a part of that if you so choose. Just remember to support bees and buy local.
Related on EcoSalon:
20 Uses for Honey You Never Thought Of
Is Raw Honey Really Worth All the Buzz?
Why You Should Not Diet in 2014
Image: Karunaker Rayker