One of the major obstacles to the success of any diet, especially in the pediatric field , is the possible ” complexity ” of the method.
Precisely for this reason, usually, by turning to a professional who catalyzes the most complex concepts and transforms them into clear recommendations, you have a better chance of reaching the set goal.
It is precisely with the intention of ” simplifying the lives of young people on a diet ” that, in the 1970s, Leonard Epstein conceived the traffic light diet , a practical and intuitive dietary approach.
In the next lines we will see better “what it consists of”, “if” it is really effective and, nevertheless, the “possible disadvantages” or “criticality”.
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What is the traffic light diet?
” Even the children” know perfectly well what the colors of the traffic lights represent!
Precisely for this reason, now about fifty years ago, LE – Professor at the Departments of Pediatrics , Community Health and Health Behavior and Social and Preventive Medicine , and Chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine – chose to use this “palette” of three colors to create a diet line designed for the treatment of overweight young people :
- green: for low- calorie foods that can be eaten freely ;
- yellow : for moderately caloricfoods that can be consumed occasionally ;
- red : for high- caloriefoods that should be rarely consumed .
The traffic light diet has been used extensively by pediatricians to encourage healthy eating habits among their patients. However “digestible” even by children, the key to the traffic light diet remains the involvement of parents .
As childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions – now even outside the United States – despite the traffic light diet being a half-century-old method, today it can be considered a current education system more than ever .
Note : to date, no single traffic light diet is recognized. There are different interpretations of the same, with modest variations that may concern a food or an entire category, but always between the green and yellow groups. The red foods are the same in each variant.
Food classification according to the traffic light diet
Green foods , to be consumed daily : vegetables , fruit, legumes and whole grains or their derivatives ( beans , lentils,brown rice, wholemeal bread , etc.), lean meat and fish ( chicken , rabbit , cod , molluscs and crustaceans etc.), milk , yogurt and low-fat cheeses ( cheeses and light ricotta ).
Orange foods , to be enjoyed in small quantities once or twice a week : refined cereals and their derivatives ( white bread , white pasta , etc.), lean meats of large animals ( beef,pork , etc.), sweet foods with a reduced sugar content and added fats (diet biscuits, simple cakes, etc.), jams , sauces and honey , red wine , non-skimmed milk and yogurt , medium- fat cheeses ( parmesan, provolone , spreads, goat cheese, etc.).
Red foods , to be eaten in small quantities and at most once a week or occasionally : traditional sweets rich in sugars and fats ( pastry brioches , cakes, etc.), fried foods (chips, croquettes, etc.), sweet drinks and energy drinks,fatty meats from large animals and / or processed / processed ( bacon,ribs,sausage,wurstel , etc.), sweet and savory snacks.
Advantages and merits of the traffic light diet
The first strong point of the traffic light diet is the communicative immediacy . As anticipated, however, this simplicity has as its first objective that of modeling the habits of parents and, only secondarily, those of children.
This is because children are more likely to lose weight and maintain adequate weight when the family also follows the same habits .
Another advantage of the traffic light diet – which, incidentally, is also suitable for the treatment of adults, with a current estimate of about 100,000 followers * – is the possibility of eating anyway (even if at a controlled frequency and portion) even those foods that they are usually totally eliminated.
In a way, the traffic light diet is highly customizable .
* Obviously, the fact that so many follow it does not necessarily mean that it is effective.
What we could define as the greatest benefit, however – beyond the physical and health improvements which, on the other hand, are the same as in any weight loss method – is the consolidation of healthy eating habits .
The traffic light diet therefore boasts a high educational power.
Disadvantages and criticalities of the traffic light diet
The traffic light diet does not match the needs of those with pathologies or conditions that require a precise estimate of needs .
The traffic light diet has the big disadvantage of being interpretable .
We know we have put this point among the advantages of the method but, on the other hand, people’s needs are always different from each other. There are psychological profiles that require him to be “forced” to eat “this or that”, and in a “very specific quantity”.
The traffic light diet is therefore not suitable for families with a “hectic” life , because most of the time no one has the time to think about what to prepare based on a self-constructed scheme.
The traffic light diet does not even lend itself to the treatment of the most “yielding” subjects , who instead need to totally eliminate the most critical products.
