By Caitlin OggWednesday 1 Mar 2017Health and WellbeingReading Time: 4 minutes
How many times have you started a new year’s resolution of eating well but quit by March? Maybe the issue isn’t you, but your diet.
New research indicates that what may be holding you back from successfully changing your eating habits is ‘blind dieting’. CSIRO writer Ellen Singleton explains this problem as choosing the wrong diet approach for your personality and lifestyle.
An online assessment, created by the CSIRO, is set to tackle this issue. The goal of the personality test is to help people understand their personal diet type and how to be successful in keeping it.
Their website says that “many Australians are making New Year’s weight loss resolutions ‘blind’, and not understanding what approach may best fit their personality and lifestyle”.
According to behavioural expert, Dr Sinead Golley, “Your personality can play a vital role in your ability to persist with a healthy eating plan”. “If you have struggled to maintain your diet after a few weeks, your personal diet type will shed light on what behaviours and habits are creating a barrier for you,” he told Sunshine Coast Daily.
The Five Food Personalities
A CSIRO team of behavioural scientists managed to identify five main diet personalities. These personalities are: The thinker, Craver, Foodie, Socialiser and the Freewheeler.
1) The Thinker
Maybe you’re so worried about not achieving your goals that you tend to put off your diet. Or maybe you get so stressed out that you start overeating, or not eating enough.
It probably means you’re a ‘Thinker’ type of dieter.
“Overthinking leads to stress and mood swings which can derail a person’s eating patterns,” writes Singleton.
2) The Craver
The ‘Craver’ is a person whose “heightened experience of cravings can lead to overeating in a variety of ‘tricky’ situations”.
If you’re a Craver type, it’s easy to fall into the trap of following your cravings. You just don’t feel satisfied until you eat that chocolate you’ve been longing for all day, or that slice of banana bread that looks at you every time you order your coffee. Cravers tell themselves it’s okay to fulfil this little craving, because you’ve been good all week—but that’s when the cycle of overeating starts.
3) The Foodie
“Food is on this person’s mind 24/7 – they love making, eating and buying it,” explains CSIRO.
Are you that person who is always sharing those food videos on Facebook to try when you get home? Perhaps you’re always trying new recipes and hate having the same meals every week. A diet that allows variety and experimentation is what you need, as a ‘Foodie’ dieter.
4) The Socialiser
If you’re the ‘Socialiser’ type of dieter, then being social means always catching up for cake and coffee, or always bringing a plate of dessert when you’ve been invited for dinner.
One key factor for the Socialiser’s diet is that it must be bendable.
“Flexibility is essential – this person won’t let a diet stifle their social life,” says Singleton.
5) The Freewheeler
A diet is simply too hard to keep when you live life from one moment to the next. If this sounds like you, then you’re the ‘Freewheeler’ type of dieter. Having a strict eating plan doesn’t account for your big birthday lunch, or the batch of brownies that a colleague brought to work on Monday.
“Reactive and impulsive, this personality struggles to say no to food,” Singleton writes.
See For Yourself – Which CSIRO Diet Type Suits You?
To find out what ‘food personality’ you are, you can fill out their online survey, which can be done in three to five minutes.
You’ll be joining the more than 55,000 people who had already completed the Diet Type Assessment a month after its launch.
“By understanding these triggers, you can identify the strategies that will work for you – giving you a much better chance at sticking to those New Year’s resolutions,” said Singleton.
The Diet to Control Diabetes
CSIRO are also releasing a new program that can help deal with Type 2 diabetes. In 2015 the organisation posted a blog post informing of their studies on a new diet. Now, two years later, the book is set to be launched this month.
The book, The CSIRO Low-Carb Diet, is a diet plan you can” follow for life”.
According to Gizmodo, “In Australia alone, an estimated 800,000 adults have Type 2 diabetes with many more undiagnosed”. This dieting plan may be a key factor in helping those who suffer.