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Fad Diets

Definition

According to the United States Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, fad diets include "the promotion for profit of special foods, products, processes, or appliances with false or misleading health or therapeutic claims."

Purpose

Fad diets are generally used by consumers to shed a great amount of weight in a short period of time. They are usually based on the erroneous belief that a particular food or food component can cause rapid weight loss or cure a disease. Another tenet of fad diets is that certain foods are harmful and therefore should be avoided completely.

Precautions

Fad diets usually result in a short-term weight loss—but most people gain the weight back after discontinuing the diet. The American Dietetic Association (ADA) has established a few guidelines to help evaluate the reliability of fad diets. They suggest that consumers avoid diets that claim weight loss can be achieved in a very short period of time; that imply that weight can be lost without any physical activity; or that rely on undocumented studies.

The most reliable way to lose weight safely and maintain weight loss is by eating a variety of foods and exercising consistently. Dieters who follow the guidelines set by the ADA, which include eating a variety of foods, balancing food intake with exercise, choosing a variety of fruits and vegetables, limiting saturated fat and cholesterol, and keeping total fat intake to a moderate level will have a healthy lifestyle—which when adhered to will ultimately aid in weight management. Many fad diets, for example, counsel dieters to eliminate certain foods or to eat one specific food for a long period of time. This approach does not promote healthy eating habits, nor does it augur well for permanent weight loss.

Description

Fad diets have been promoted and used for many years. Some of the most popular fad diets today include high-protein diets, liquid diets, the grapefruit diet, food-combining diets, the cabbage diet, and a variety of diet pills.

High-protein diets

High-protein diets began in the 1970s, based on the theory that too many carbohydrates in the diet interfere with the body's ability to burn fat. This diet encourages the consumption of large quantities of protein-rich foods such as meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, poultry, and cheese. Some popular high-protein diets include the Atkins diet, the Zone, and the protein-power diet.


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