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What is a fad diet?
Despite what major media outlets, Instagram models or popular celebrities would have you believe, not all diets are actually beneficial or conducive to our overall health and wellness. According to research published in 2007, by the Institute for Environmental Health Sciences at Wayne State University, there are over 1000 diet books currently in circulation, "with many popular ones departing substantially from mainstream medical advice." (Ruden, 2007) Several popular diets were broken down and studied including the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone diets for, "effectiveness in terms of weight loss and heart disease reduction in adults." (Ruden, 2007) After a year of careful observation on 160 individuals, researchers concluded that these diets, "modestly reduced body weight and several cardiac risk factors at 1 year." in a "small trial of 160 participants randomly assigned to either the Atkins (carbohydrate restriction), Zone (macronutrient balance), Weight Watchers (caloric restriction), or Ornish (fat restriction) diet groups, with 40 participants in each group.." (Ruden,2007)
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The sample size of the experiment was no where near large enough to prove causality of one diet over the others, but most could agree that following a diet plan bring many health benefits. Focusing on our daily nutrients is vital to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Long term dieting is of course linked to maintained cardiovascular health and reduced body weight for as long the diet is maintained. Diet is important for a healthy lifestyle, so living our best lives now and into the future will be way the prevention of many healthy problems a person could become afflicted with later in life. What role could diet really play across the span of our lifetimes? If people are able to live long healthy lives it would make waves across the planet for a healthier human species. .
A fad diet is a diet which may be based on popularity instead of practicality. As a result of fad dieting, people on social media sites promote diets and often sell products to promote certain lifestyles or diets which may or may not actually be healthy for the participants. People go Vegan without realizing Oreo's and juice concentrates aren't animal byproducts, but that doesn't mean they're conducive to good health. Instead of monitoring their respective micro- and macro-nutrients, people subscribe to YouTube channels, podcasts, or follow Instagram celebrities who give away horrible eating habits but look good doing it.
The goal of this blog, and the web site as a whole, is to encourage readers to look to science instead of social media when learning about nutrition.