This is the perfect time to be interested in wellness. With countless gigabytes of information at our fingertips, and groundbreaking technological advances at our disposal, the possibilities of how we can evaluate and promote our own wellbeing are endless.

A particular and, perhaps overused, quote comes to mind “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Curiosity regarding your health should be seen as a kind of power. If you are intrigued enough to learn about the inner workings of the body and mind and then try to decide what habits you should adopt, the challenge then arises of weeding through the myths and fads. Needless to say, choosing what is right for you when it comes to your health is a great responsibility.

Reading through any wellness magazine or website will introduce you to many trends that “promote” your well being, but how many of them actually live up to their reputation? You hear about these wellness trends and fads, but also should hear the other side of the story for a full picture.

Hopefully, by evaluating some of the most popular wellness beliefs out there, we can help when you are next deciding how to best be in control of your health.

Are these trends “Fit” or “Fad” ?:

1. Liquid Diet Cleanses

Liquid fasts are always on the wellness radar, but are they actually as great as some claim? Apparently Beyonce went on the “master cleanse” of only consuming a mixture of water, lemon juice, cayenne pepper,and maple syrup for days to shed the baby weight. Generally, it depends on the length of the cleanse and what you are aiming to get out of it.

If weight loss is your goal, liquid cleanses may be counter productive. Once the cleanse ends and people start eating regularly again, the hunger that has built up makes them want to eat more than they usually would. The calories that you skipped out on while juicing eventually make themselves up. However, if you have any digestion concerns or wish to cleanse your colon by eliminating any built up waste and toxins in your system, liquid diets are very beneficial.

Our conclusion: Fit, if done the right way!

2. Calorie Counting.

Constantly looking at calories and adding them up throughout the day may become a thing of the past. Recent reports have criticized nutrition labels by discovering that they are not as accurate as we think and our years of calorie counting could all be false. More importantly, calories are not the important factor to consider when picking out your lunch! Some “low calorie” foods have little to no nutritional elements, and at the end of the day the fatigue and weakness that you feel is not worth it.

Our conclusion: Fad.

3. Only eating during an 8 hour window each day.

This “8-hour diet” has gotten a lot of buzz recently for those trying to lose weight. The idea is to choose an 8 hour time window, like 9:00 am until 5:00 pm, where you eat all of your meals. Studies have shown that scheduling your eating like this makes it clear to your body when it is time to break down your food and really metabolize what you have eaten. If you eat periodically throughout the whole day, the body can become confused about when to turn the food into energy for you to use. This 8-hour diet can help regulate your metabolism and as a result, lose weight.

Our conclusion: Fit, if you believe this is right for you.

4. Exercising on an empty stomach burns more fat.

It is commonly believed that going for a run or bike ride on an empty stomach will burn away stored up fat because there is nothing in your stomach to be turned into energy first. How do you expect to keep your energy level up for a beneficial workout if you didn’t fuel yourself beforehand? Empty stomachs lead to ineffective workouts because you are too tired to keep it up.

Our conclusion: Fad.

5. The 80/20 theory

This theory is in order to be healthy and happy, you should aim to eat and live healthy 80% of the time and leave the 20% for those times when you need a little treat. If you try to vow to yourself to be 100% healthy 100% of the time you could be setting yourself up for failure. Allowing yourself to enjoy some wiggle room can make your pizza nights with friends guilt-free because you have confidence from making the effort to be healthy most of the time.

Our Conclusion: Fit.

What else have you heard of and are curious about? Share your experiences and questions below!

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