Fad diet
From RationalWiki
A fad diet is any diet plan that is promoted by publicity and word-of-mouth rather than scientific study. Most such diets focus around weight loss, but many claim to cure diseases such as autism, attention deficit disorder, and even cancer. Such diets are often created by a single person, sometimes a medical practitioner of some sort, but often a lay person with no particular credentials. Some are often propagated as anonymous faxlore or email lore in much the same manner as many urban legends, but others are distributed and heavily promoted by major media corporations. Actual validity (or lack thereof) is often established or disproven long after the diet has become popular due to the lack of peer review in the popular press, especially since many fad diet promoters have thrown in their lot with alternative medicine.
The most high-profile fad diets tend to be weight loss diets associated with a specific personality or catchy name; currently popular ones include low-carb diets like the Atkins diet (based on drastically reducing carbohydrate intake), the South Beach Diet by Dr. Arthur Agatston, and the Zone Diet. The Jesus Diet, using ingredients and foods mentioned in the Bible, exists in several different versions. The Lemonade Diet has gone through on-and-off periods of popularity since the 1970s. The A.T.W. Simeons diet, which relies on a highly restrictive 500 calorie/day diet plus daily injections of the HCG hormone, has recently come back into popularity thanks to promotion by Kevin Trudeau. Past examples include the Hay diet (separating meat and vegetables to avoid supposedly-unfavorable acid imbalances) and Fletcherism (chewing your food for way too long).
Some of these diets do result in weight loss if followed, but often for very different reasons that their promoters claim - usually because of reduced calorie intake. Some of them are completely worthless even for weight loss. Even those which are effective often do not provide a healthy intake of necessary nutrients, or potentially unhealthy levels of some substances (such as saturated fats in the case of some low-carb diets).
Bottom line: Long-term weight loss comes about by reducing calorie intake and increasing physical activity. Be wary of anyone promising fast weight loss from any other method.
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[edit] Health Risks
The health risks associated with fad diets overseen by unqualified 'dieticians' were highlighted by a recent BBC New article[1] which concludes with a quote from kidney specialist, Professor Graham MacGregor, saying that"In normal circumstances, then people should drink when their body tells them to - when they get thirsty. Anything else is completely unnecessary, and will just leave you standing in the queue for the toilet. Detox diets are a complete con in that respect."
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- A humorous website on fad diets run by ShopInPrivate.com
- One blogger's listing of 25 of the most ridiculous diets ever
- "A Steady Diet of Detox": Forbes.com article (via MSN Health & Fitness) about extreme detoxifying diets.
[edit] Footnotes
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