Fad Diets

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."

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.

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 withexercise, choosing a variety of fruits and vegetables, limiting saturated fat andcholesterol, 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.

Fad Diets