What Makes A Diet A Fad Diet
What are some popular types of fad diets?
With fad diets, you see a lot of cleanses, detox, and fasts centering around one particular food or one particular eating behavior such as high-protein, low-carbohydrate, low-fat, high-fat, or anything that's kind of extreme.
What do all fad diets have in common?
All fad diets promise quick weight loss. They usually center around one type of eating behavior or one type of food. Usually no scientific proof is behind them. They're generally not nutritionally sound. They tell you you don't have to exercise often. They promise that everything's going to be easy, you won't have to change your eating habits very much and if you do, it's because your eating habits were bad in the first place.
What are some of the popular past fad diets?
Fad diets have been around for as long as the words “fad diet” have been around. Some of the funnier ones are the “Sleeping Beauty Diet”, whereby in 1970, people that did that diet would be sedated for a few days, so of course they would lose weight, because they wouldn't be eating for a few days. There was the “Cabbage Soup Diet”, there was the Scarsdale Diet, and other variations of the high-protein, low-carbohydrates diet. Also there was a Virginia Slims Diet, where women just smoked cigarettes to keep the weight off. Not exactly healthy, either.
What is the basic science of all fad diets?
The macro-nutrients are nutrients that provide energy; energy in the form of calories. We only have three macro-nutrients that provide calories. Again, calories equal energy. Energy equals calories. Those are carbohydrate, fat, and protein. That's not a lot to mess around with. So, we just keep seeing different reincarnations of these same diets that keep repeating themselves over the years. Just written in a slightly different way in a book or advertised in a slightly different way. But, how much can you really do with three macro-nutrients? There's not a lot of creativity that you can find with fad diets. That's why we see a lot of them repeating over and over again. With just different names, different incarnations.
Are all popular diets fad diets?
Not all popular diets are fad diets. There are many out there that are nutritionally sound, and that contain all the nutrients that you need and do help you lose weight in a slow and steady way. Usually, you can spot those using a registered dietician, and they can help you to determine whether that's a fad diet or not, or whether it's something that is nutritionally sound and is going to help you lose weight in a healthy way.
If an 'expert' promotes a diet, does that mean it's legitimate?
Usually on a lot of these fad diets, the calories are so restricted and some of them, if you're doing a fast or if you're doing just a liquid diet, your gut doesn't have a chance to do what it needs to do, and so it could stop working properly. You could suffer constipation, and you could suffer pain. When you do start eating again, you know all kinds of different gastrointestinal problems can happen. Also, you may have bad breath which may not be so great for the people around you because when you restrict calories like that, your body goes into something called ketosis and produces acidic bodies that give you bad breath.
How do I spot a fad diet?
Look for testimonials on a fad diet, and before and after types of pictures. Be wary of that type of thing. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Ask yourself that question, does this really sound to good to be true? Does it offer quick promises of weight loss or weight loss that you'll keep off for the rest of your life? It may use so-called experts that aren't necessarily experts in nutrition. Usually fad diets tend to be very restrictive, either eliminating food choices, eliminating whole categories of food or centering around one type of food. Again, using testimonials. Keep in mind that these people who are doing the before and after pictures, they're paid for that and so are the so-called experts. They're being paid to say that this is the diet that you should be following, so there's an incentive for them to be making those statements. Another way to spot a fad diet is if it contradicts the general recommendations that the government puts out. Telling us the food supply isn't full of nutrients anymore, and the government is trying to steer you towards buying a certain kind of food. It makes us question our own food supply, and makes us question the general recommendations that are actually fairly healthy and nutritionally sound.
