The Downfalls to Fad Diets
By Catherine Kruppa, MS, RD, LD

In January of 2002, Men's Health Magazine awarded Houston the fattest city in America award. With so many Houstonians, as well as Americans, wanting to lose weight, many turn to fad diets in an effort to find that magic weight loss bullet. This article addresses a few of the more popular fads and the potential risks.

Dr. Atkin's New Diet Revolution is based on cutting out carbohydrate containing foods and eating an unlimited amount of meat, fish, poultry and fats. This definitely appeals to most Americans who can easily live without the bun on their double bacon cheddar cheeseburger. People see weight loss due to two reasons. First, when high amounts of protein byproducts are excreted through the kidneys, so is a lot of water. Secondly, after the first three days of the diet the novelty of eating as much fat and protein as you want wears off, your caloric intake decreases due to the exclusion of a food group. The potential risks of this diet include an increased risk of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, gout, kidney stones, orthostatic hypotension, high blood pressure, and diet failure. The bottom line is how long can you really avoid bread and bread products - a lifetime? And when you do start eating them again, unless you have decreased your total calorie intake, that weight is going to magically reappear.

The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet consists of a low carbohydrate diet all day, expect for a one-hour reward meal. Again, this diet is effective because it limits calories from carbohydrates at every meal except for one and that meal lasts only one hour. Potential problems of this diet include that it promotes inaccuracies such as "grapes are nothing but sugar bound to ignite nonstop carbohydrate cravings". It calls for decreased fruit intake and decreased intake of fiber, numerous vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. Scientific studies show that fruit, fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals fight against heart disease and cancer. This is just another diet that leads consumers another step away from normal eating.

Sugar Busters! works by cutting out concentrated sources of sugar and high glycemic carbohydrates. This successfully cuts calorie intake for most people. This book also includes the promotion of inaccuracies; such as carrots are a bad food. Do you really believe that an excess amount of carrots is what has caused obesity in America? Excluding sugar from the diet has important psychological consequences and moderate consumption of sugar does not compromise blood sugar and can be part of a healthy diet. This diet can definitely be detrimental to athletes and other active people.

The bottom line is that these diets may cause you to lose a few pounds, but can they realistically last a lifetime as well as promote your health? The answer is no, and you are better off having a few excess pounds than watching your weight yo-yo with every new fad diet. The key to healthy weight loss is to consume fewer calories than you expend during the day and to consume a well-balanced diet.

Read other articles by Catherine Kruppa