At a certain point it seems like the main benefit of all restrictive diets is just that they exclude junk and force the dieter to cook at home.
If you can't eat Snickers, and you can't buy high sugar-salt-fat restaurant food (which often comes in massive portions), you'll probably eat a smaller amount of more nutritious food. Which is great, but there's no real need to pursue arcane diet restrictions to get there. And in some cases, like 'alkaline' diets, you can quickly get into real trouble with nutrient deficiency just because the food pool is so small.
As I recall, The Blonde Vegan (a popular food blogger) managed to end up seriously malnourished off a diet that initially made her feel healthy and energetic. Just as you say, the productive step was "eat less crap", and the counterproductive step was "eat only these 10 foods".
If you can't eat Snickers, and you can't buy high sugar-salt-fat restaurant food (which often comes in massive portions), you'll probably eat a smaller amount of more nutritious food. Which is great, but there's no real need to pursue arcane diet restrictions to get there. And in some cases, like 'alkaline' diets, you can quickly get into real trouble with nutrient deficiency just because the food pool is so small.
As I recall, The Blonde Vegan (a popular food blogger) managed to end up seriously malnourished off a diet that initially made her feel healthy and energetic. Just as you say, the productive step was "eat less crap", and the counterproductive step was "eat only these 10 foods".