Most diets usually give people a set meal plan and a list of foods they can or cant eat (the former automatically being exclusive). Already the person is set up for failure.
Dr. Pepper has no context in a healthy diet.
Theres no such thing as a food that is 'bad for you' - bread has a context. Dr Pepper has a context. Even weed killer has a context (imagine if OOC drank some). Excluding foods all together is one of many aspects of bro science I dislike. Exclusion is the enemy of variety, which is the hot younger sister of health.
Comparing it to training isnt such a good idea, after all:
(1) Beginners are in the gym 3 hours a week as opposed to the rest of the week they spend eating and sleeping.
(2) Naturally we do edit programs for the context of their users - you cant give a lifter at fitness first instructions to use a reverse hyper after cambered bar squats.
I'm not saying lets remove all guidelines for being 'too hard' - everybody knows they need lean meats, efas, fruit/veg and starches, if they dont they have a bigger program than anyone on this forum could hope to mend. Give them some rules of thumb for calories/macro breakdowns and let them have at it with an emphasis on variety.
'Eat this', 'don't eat that' and 'dont eat Y at night' without any flexibility like most diets is inevitably going to end with the person eating a cookie, not knowing what to do and therefore giving up and gorging on the whole bag (check out some of Lyle's work for more info).
Some people need a regiment so that they hit there required intake for the day. Be it for trying to gain weight or lose weight. I have no idea how much fat and protein is in beef, so I setup a daily plan for all my food. Then eat the same thing everyday. Some people are insulin sensitive/insensitive which means they may need to time there carbs or limit them.
BTW, Dr. Pepper has no context in a healthy diet. I'm not judging but if someone says they eat clean all the time, and then go suck on a soft drink their kidding themselves.
accounting for certain food choices and allergies are the sort of things conventional diets fail to do, which is my point.
As for the dr pepper - lets take twin triathletes. When mines feeling low 2/3rds of the way through I'll give him Dr Pepper, you on the other hand can give yours Dr X's Ultra Squeaky Clean Diet Drink. We'll meet at the finish line to discuss results.
This little princess argument between nOObs and Oliver is sorted with one word...
BALANCE (to a certain extent)...
Oliver has a good point in which his trying to make (which I think is GRADUAL change). Which is why you give a beginner a TIP (such as reduce soft drink intake from 30cans to 20cans) for 1 week then the following week (reduce 20cans to 15cans)... etc etc... As yes it will take a longer time but it is a lifestyle change not a temporary change so do it slowly but permanently...
For some reason my nutrition lecturer never understood my approach...
I can't find not one person (who has never gone on a diet, doesn't train - pretty much average Joe) who will stick to a written diet if they were given one... From previous experience they even struggle meeting one requirment such as the tip...
It only then makes you realise how literally fucked up their diets are, and how hard it is for one to change his diet...
But yes I doubt half the shit iv'e said makes sense as I am tired and I probably didn't interpret the point properly...
But what I do know is that vitamins will kill you (directed to nOObs)...
Goodnight.
Both examples you two have pulled out are extreme. Nobody is saying you have to choose between drinking 30 cans of soft drink a day and eating your paleo diet - there is a middle ground (note: that middle ground isnt 15 cans a day).
People generally have food preferences and needs that most diets dont accommodate for. You're a prime example of that noobs, you cant drink milk. How would you fare on the warrior diet which recommends things like copious amounts of cheese and ice cream?