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By Heide Kennedy, Arizona Farm Bureau Communications Intern

Here’s part two of our overview of some of the most popular kinds of diets! In this part, we’ll be breaking down intermittent fasting and the low-fat diet!

Intermittent Fasting

Following an intermittent fasting diet has been increasingly popular lately because it’s relatively easy to do, and is very customizable to your specific needs. This diet cycles your body through periods of eating followed by periods of fasting. There are many different methods and timings within this diet, with some fasting and eating periods being separated only by hours, and others being separated by whole days.

Some diet apps even suggest you make slight adjustments to intermittent fasting based on your age.

Some of the perks of intermittent fasting are that it’s an easy way to restrict calories, it is successful for weight loss, boosts metabolism in the short-term, boosts production of HGH (human growth hormone), and improves cellular repair. Another benefit to intermittent fasting that sets it apart from other diets is that it causes less muscle loss than other diets.

Low-Fat Diet

The low-fat diet became pretty popular in the 1980s as a way to reduce the risk of developing heart disease. Intense low-fat diets aim to limit daily fat intake to 10% of daily calories by limiting the amount of animal products consumed and replacing them with plant-based products. Besides reducing fat, this also increases the amount of carbohydrates you eat and reduces protein intake.

Low-fat diets have been successful for obese individuals, and they can reduce the risk for heart disease, and type 2 diabetes, and can slow the progression of multiple sclerosis. However, the downside to low-fat diets is that fat is an important part of a healthy diet, and not getting enough fat can lead to long-term health issues.

Keep an eye out for part 3! In that final article on diets, we’ll be looking at 3 diets, the paleo diet, the Dukan diet, and the zone diet!

Check out the Fill Your Plate blog for other articles about food and nutrition!