You’ve heard of a multitude of diets. From the famous Atkins diet to the common low-carb dieting routine, there are a ton of different dieting techniques out there. Some diets are designed for weight loss, whereas others exist to promote better muscle growth or to protect against certain diseases.

Whatever the reason for your diet, make sure it isn’t boring.
Keeping your diet exciting probably doesn’t sound like it should be a priority, but there are actually a lot of reasons why boring diets can actually be unhealthy.

For starters:

1. You can Have Too Much of a Good Thing

Some diets are based on consuming only certain types of foods. For instance, a juice cleanses diet may require you to eat only liquids for a while. The liquids will be probably be composed of a series of superfood fruits and vegetables. While those foods may be good for you, you can have too much of them.

Any time that you consume the same foods over and over again there are risks, especially if the diet is very exclusive. For example, you may know that consuming carrots excessively can cause your skin to turn yellow. While the condition itself is harmless, there can be other, more hazardous side effects.

Depending on the nutrients you consume excessively, you may experience dangers like:

• Constipation from buildup in your bowels
• Diarrhea as a result of imbalance in your digestive system
• Toxicity causing tissue damage, including damage to the liver
• Issues within the nervous system
• Kidney Stones
• Imbalance of vitamins, causing some to mask or eliminate others (like too much folic acid covering up a Vitamin B12 deficiency)
• Thinner or thicker blood
• Instability of the blood pressure
• Birth defects

Why risk issues like these, or the many others that aren’t listed? When you diet, be sure to consume diverse foods and nutrients. Read labels and watch out for consuming one type of nutrient in excess.

2. No Boring Diet Offers Complete Balance

A diet that’s boring probably focuses on getting you a few key ingredients –or eliminating a few others. Here’s the problem with that sort of strategy: your body needs a wide array of nutrients and types of food. Your body even needs fats and carbohydrates.

The key to an effective and healthy diet is not to focus so much on weight loss or eliminating certain issues, but to make your goal getting healthy. Eating healthy requires diversifying your palette.

Use simple strategies to help yourself eat healthy, like:

• Eating based on the standard food pyramid, currently known as MyPlate.
• Count not just your calories, but how much of the daily recommended amount of vitamins and other essential nutrients you consume.
• Try to get as many different colors on your plate as you can each meal.
• Cycle out meals on a schedule to ensure that you don’t eat the same things over and over again.
• Buy foods that are in season so that each season you enjoy a new selection.
• Portion out any foods you buy in bulk so as not to consume quickly and excessively.
• Make it a goal to try a new food every month.

3. Your Physical Circumstances Demand Diverse Nutrients

Sometimes a boring diet for a few days is a good idea, like when you choose to go on a healthy juice cleanse to detoxify your body. That’s not a problem as long as you don’t overdo it. When the cleanse is over, let it be over.

Chances are that whatever purpose a special diet like that is for, it isn’t helpful all of the time. Your physical circumstances change, and your body’s needs change accordingly. For example, your body needs more of certain nutrients when stuff changes like:

Your Life Phases
When you are a child, you need a lot more of certain nutrients, like calcium and fiber. As an adult, you may need more of other types of food. Pregnant women, for instance, need a lot more folate and folic acid. Phases like these that you experience in life significantly affect the sort of diet you should be on.

The Seasons
Eating the same foods all year long can be foolish. During the different seasons, your body faces different needs. In the winter your body uses more fat to keep you warmer and requires extra vitamins to keep your immune system healthy as colds and other illnesses are prevalent.

Your Health
The status of your health can be influenced by what you consume. If you are suffering from certain illnesses, you might need more of particular nutrients to recover. There also may be instances in which you need to avoid certain ingredients because of health risks.

Your Energy Needs
Of all times to pick a boring diet, when you need to be gaining muscle or running around often is not the time. You need a lot of diverse proteins and other forms of energy to keep you going and growing.

4. Introducing New Foods can Become Shocking

Did you know that if you cut certain foods out of your diet for a long time, reintroducing them can be a shock to your system? Your body has to balance a lot to keep your digestive system (and the rest of you!) healthy. From hormones to acids to what your body uses, stores, and excretes, there is a lot to keep in order. “New” nutrients can be difficult to fit in properly.

Milk, for example, offers a ton of benefits like calcium and protein. If you don’t drink milk at all for years, your body may stop producing the enzyme lactase that is needed to digest it. As a result, consuming heavy dairy products may be difficult and cause stomach issues.

Avoid cutting out any type of food entirely unless it is required for health reasons. If you find yourself limiting certain foods in your diet, like sugars, be sure to slowly re-introduce them to your body in appropriate portions so that your body has time to adjust.

This article is originally published on consumerhealthdigest.com by BETHANY MCILRATH.