More than a third of adult Americans are overweight, a similar number are obese and nearly a fifth of adolescents ages 12 to 19 are obese, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2008. Such statistics indicate that following a healthy diet is an issue for numerous individuals in the United States, both young and old. Although diets abound, the best ones are those that encourage realistic eating habits for the long-term, such as many diet exchange systems.
Diet Exchange Systems
Diet exchanges are groups or types of similar food included in an eating plan that dieters can eat in place of other foods within the same category. Diets that use an exchange system are based on the diabetic exchange lists designed to help diabetics follow a healthier diet to control their blood sugar and improve their health. People starting an exchange diet must first determine what their dietary needs are before deciding which exchange lists to include in their eating plan.
Exchange Food Groups
The classic diabetic exchange system includes six groups of food, called food exchange lists, which are divided into fats, fruit, meat, milk, starches and vegetable categories. The foods in each individual group all have a similar amount of calories and nutrients such as carbohydrates, fat and protein. Some foods in an exchange system are also considered free, which generally means you can eat as much as you want of the items because they contain no more than 20 calories.
Types of Exchange Foods
Contemporary exchange diets usually have food lists similar to those in the diabetic exchange system. For example, the University of Maryland Medical Center lists fats, fruits and sugar, meat and cheese, milk and substitutes, starches and bread, and vegetables as common exchange lists. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute refines the groups even further, including separate lists for narrower food groups such as fat-free and very low-fat milk, medium-fat proteins, lean protein and very lean protein.
Serving Features and Sizes
Exchange diets are meant to be custom-built. Therefore, the specific amounts of each type of food in each list that you can eat and exchange depends on your unique dietary and health requirements. For instance, if your goal is to consume 1,500 calories a day, one possible exchange eating plan might allow you to have two milk exchanges, three fat exchanges, three fruit exchanges, three vegetable exchanges, five meat exchanges and eight starch exchanges every day. Each exchange food on the milk list might consist of an 8-oz. or 1-cup serving that provides a certain number of calories and fat. Moreover, people who need to lower their cholesterol might have only nonfat and low-fat options in the milk exchange list and no whole-fat alternatives.
Benefits and Considerations
Exchange diet systems help people learn how to eat a more balanced and nutritious diet while providing the variety necessary to modify your meals to satisfy your tastes at any particular time. The ability to customize your menu whenever you want is especially important; many dieters return to their earlier unhealthy eating habits when they become bored or frustrated with restrictive diets. Exchange diets also have another advantage over restrictive diets: they do not promote unrealistic eating goals or expect you to avoid entire groups of foods, some of which may contain essential nutrients that you need for good health.
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