Fad Diets
Fad diets are a continuing epidemic threatening not only your own health, but the health of your offspring. Fad diets ignore the truth, use unproven science to back up false claims, and rely on broad testimony of a doctors speaking very broadly or on the deep pockets of dishonest practitioners who will say anything for a dollar. As dieting becomes more popular, fad diets become more dangerous; let’s have at fad diets and why they are bad.
A “food fad” comes in a few broad categories where either 1) the virtue of one particular type of food is grossly exaggerated to perform things it does not or 2) when food is wholly eliminated and branded as harmful or 3) where food consumption is associated with a “lifestyle.”
The effects of fad diets can spill over and affect not only the lives of fully grown, cognizant adults who are making a choice but to the lives of the children who live with them. Malnutrition is a tragedy found across the world; but malnutrition by choice is a form of child abuse; parents have gone to jail for less.
Some fad diets are very dangerous; the Zen Macrobiotic diet springs to mind. This diet is basically the elimination of all fruits, vegetables, and animal products in exchange for a ten step devolvement into whole grain cereals only. This diet is said to present a spiritual awakening and cure diseases. But, as most rational people understand that is neither good for you in the short term nor sustainable in the long term as a way of life.
There are fad diets that work which people adopt and incorporate into an overall health plan. That’s always best to do; take what works for you incorporate what works for you from their plans and shelve what does not. Diet plans which have been accused of faddism but are not necessarily dangerous if followed for a limited period of time (say pre- or post-nattily or to lose weight for something specific) or loosely taken as advice include:
South Beach Diet
Nutrisystem
Weight Watchers
Jenny Craig
Atkins Diet
There are tons of others not mentioned above and the newest fad diet is hitting the store shelves near you as we speak. You could probably even locate a free fad diet online right now! But faddism is not the way to go; nutrition, exercise, health, and management are all keys to a brighter tomorrow.