If you’ve tried a fad diet, and felt pretty stupid about failing or even making that decision in the first place, don’t worry – even those who know all about diet and wellbeing have been tempted by the promise of speedy weight loss results! Wellness expert Elizabeth Goodman Artis, Executive Editor of Muscle & Fitness Hers, admits, ‘I have experimented with most (though not all) of these popular weight-loss methods: from an all tuna plan in 7th (!) grade to the college era diet that allowed me to consume as many Snackwell cookies and Heinekens as my heart desired. Then there was the “caveman” diet I tried with my husband, a fan of the workout that espouses it. This left me craving white carbs so desperately I was ready to stuff a bagel into a baguette and call it a bagel/baguette sandwich.’
Goodman Artis continues, ‘And yes, many of these diets worked (not counting the beer and cookies)… at first. The reason, say experts, is that any time you drastically change your eating habits — in any way — you’re going to see results on the scale.’ The problem is that fad diets are simply note sustainable. Janet Brill, RD, PhD, a consultant in private practice and author of Cholesterol Down, asserts, ‘If you can’t envision sticking with a diet for the rest of your life, then it’s not a good eating plan.’ So we got Goodman Artis and Brill to look at some of the more popular, ridiculous diet plans of recent years, and explain why they’re more hype than help:
1. The Blood Type Diet: Goodman Artis explains, ‘Whether you’re A, B, A/B, or O, the theory goes that depending on your blood type, you should adhere to one of four possible eating plans: low carb/high protein, low-fat, vegetarian, or just an overall balanced diet. The reasoning is based on biochemistry and evolutionary theory.’ However, Brill points out that this has no scientific basis: ‘Blood type has to do with receptors on red blood cells and doesn’t dictate what you should or shouldn’t eat.’
2. Cut One Food Group: ‘Just cut out all carbs/sugar/fat (and eat as much as you want of everything else) and voila, the weight melts off,’ Goodman Artis details. ‘The problem…is that when you cut out one nutrient entirely, you’re likely to compensate with another. So if you eliminate all fat from your diet, there’s a good chance you’ll amp up the carbohydrates, and often the white processed variety. Or if you cut carbs, you may end up eating more fat. And while sugar doesn’t have much nutritional value, vowing to let nothing sweet pass your lips is just a recipe for a binge.’
3. Eat the Same Food 24/7: Goodman Artis recalls, ‘Seventh grade, as everyone knows, is a social minefield of cliques, mean girls, and pre-adolescent insecurity — and in an effort to lose the extra three pounds I was carrying, I decided to eat plain tuna fish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day until I could fit into a smaller pair of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans. That lasted through lunch. Sub in any singular food and you have a weight-loss method that’s ebbed and flowed in popularity over the years; for example, the all-fruit diet and the notorious cabbage soup diet. There are a myriad of reasons this is a wrong-headed approach to weight loss… but the main one is of course sustainability — forget keeping this up for life (imagine if, 31 years later, I was subsisting solely on canned tuna). Few can maintain this approach for longer than a day.’
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