What Are Some Fad Diets?

Fad diets are diets that quickly gain popularity and often fall out of favor just as quickly. They are often associated with fast and unhealthy weight loss. When choosing a diet, remember the key to weight loss and weight maintenance is a consistent healthy lifestyle. The diet that is right for you is one that meets your minimal nutritional needs and that you will stick with.

Atkins

• Dr. Robert Atkins first published his ideas about the benefits of eating less carbohydrates in 1974. His diet reached fad status in the early 2000s on the backing of celebrity endorsements and stories of miraculous weight loss. The Atkins Diet has four phases, the first of which has garnered controversy because it advises eating a maximum of 20 g of carbs for two weeks, forcing the body into ketosis. Ketosis is the process of turning stored fats or proteins into carbohydrates for energy use. A by-product of ketosis is ammonium, which is toxic to the human body at high levels.

Cabbage Soup Diet

• A common feature of many fad diets is emphasizing the consumption of only one type of food. The cabbage soup diet is one of these. This diet lasts for only seven days, and claims that followers will lose up to 20 lbs. During the seven days you can eat as much cabbage soup, skim milk and low-starch fruits and vegetables as you want. The American Heart Association specifically names this diet in its position on fad diets as not offering the nutritional balance your body needs and for causing abdominal pain, gas and disappointment when you put the pounds back on the following seven days.

Weight Watchers

• Weight Watchers has maintained its popularity over a long period of time, but is considered by many nutritionists, including those at the University of Colorado, as a fad diet. Weight Watchers is based around a point system, loosely related to the number of calories an individual food provides. Although changes made to their point system in 2011 help, the emphasis is still on quantity with almost no regard to quality. Sometimes even the quantity is incorrect, as petite dieters with high weight loss goals are advised to eat as little as 1000 calories a day, which is not high enough to get all the nutrients your body needs.

Apple Cider Vinegar Diet

• In this diet you are able to eat anything you want, you just need to consume 2 tbsp. of apple cider vinegar before every meal. The thought process behind this is that the acids in the vinegar will break down food before it can be digested. Mayo Clinic nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky, R.D/L.D. argues that while this diet is not out-and-out dangerous, long-term use of apple cider vinegar could damage the linings of the throat, esophagus and stomach due to its acidity and could impact the absorption of oral medications such as diuretics and insulin.