How do diets work?
All diets work by restricting calories. Since simply telling people to eat smaller portions doesn’t sell books, most commercial diet plans are built around a nutritional trick that makes it easier to restrict dietary intake. Food is made up of four basic components (so-called macronutrients): water, fats, protein and carbohydrates. Therefore, it follows that telling people to avoid fats or cut out carbs will automatically eliminate a lot of food choices. Low-carb diets, for example, are effective, because they remove an enormous number of potential foods such as bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc., from a person’s diet.
