Trends - introduction

++  What's old is new again!  Trends in food, fashion, home furnishings, you name it!  What do they have in common?  My Grandmother used to say, "Save that shirt.  It will be back in style in 7 years."  Even if the timing varies, "retro" comes back in style.  Details change, but the basics come back periodically.  For the next few posts, we will look at some of the food trends that have returned recently.

To judge the value of any diet, or to develop a good food plan, it helps to remember a few key points:

1. Diets that restrict certain foods, or groups of foods, often lead to a lack of key nutrients.  Sometimes, the handling of the food makes it a poor choice:  examples are highly processed foods that have essential parts removed in production, foods that could be contaminated, etc.  But, the basic foods themselves could have still been a part of a good diet. 
2. Diets that stress one food - like eating cabbage soup every day - can also lead to nutrient imbalances.  The only good thing about these diets is that many people soon get so tired of them that they don't stick with the diet for long.
3. Many specialty diets are more expensive to follow than how "grandma" told you to eat. Your grandma did say to eat your vegetables, and not gorge on dessert, right? 
4. Many people respond to a restrictive diet by starting to crave the foods the diet forbids.  An 80/20 food plan can help you get off to a good start if you want to improve your diet.  80% of the time, eat healthy foods in healthy amounts.  You can find suggestions for this with a guide like ChooseMyPlate.  The other 20% of the time (and gradually less), you can indulge.

Next up:  gluten-free.  See you soon.