Fad Diets and Weight Loss
There are many fad diets that people unfortunately get sucked into trying in a bid to lose weight fast or easily. Some of the most popular of these fad diets are the cabbage soup diet, the cookie diet, low carbohydrate and high protein diets such as Dr. Atkin’s diet, the Zone diet, and the “eat all you want of one type of food diet”. Fad diets are diets that have become popular for one reason or another. Most fad diets are a combination of different foods, or one type of food and most unfortunately do not work when it comes to losing weight. Fad diets are usually short-term in popularity, are usually the “quick fix” type of weight loss method and usually have very limited food choices or strict intake rules. Once the novelty of the fad has worn off another fad diet replaces it. Here are some fad diets to explore.
Perhaps the most popular of the low carbohydrate, high protein diets is the Dr. Atkin’s diet. Those who practice this diet believe that an excessive amount of carbohydrate intake can prevent the body from burning fat efficiently and that eating too many carbohydrates can cause the body to produce an excessive amount of insulin, which leads to obesity. They also believe that reducing dietary carbohydrates will force the body to burn the reserves of stored fat for energy. This condition in the body is called, “ketosis”.
There are currently no scientific studies that support the claims made by those who support the Atkin’s diet. There are limited food choices with this plan; dehydration is possible if the individual does not drink enough water. This diet is also low in calcium, magnesium, and vitamin C and folate.
The cabbage soup diet is supposedly a quick weight loss diet. The food choices are limited and the calories are low. There is not enough nutrition for this diet to be a healthy one. Exercise is not a part of the diet plan and no advice is given about changing poor weight management habits. Those who promote the cabbage soup diet say that you can lose ten pounds in a week.
On the cabbage soup diet has a small list of foods that you can eat including cabbage soup, fruit (except bananas) unsweetened tea, black coffee, cranberry juice, and water, vegetables except beans, peas, or corn. On the diet you can have baked potato with butter, skim milk, beef, chicken, tomatoes, beefsteak, brown rice, and unsweetened fruit juices. There are specific foods to eat out of the above group each day of the diet.
Dr. Sanford Siegal developed a weight loss diet called the “cookie diet”. He promoted the diet as being able to shed 15 pounds in a month, which would be very appealing to dieters. The diet has only one meal, dinner. The dinner consisted of 6 ounces of chicken, fish, turkey or seafood, a cup of vegetables and six hunger-suppressing cookies each day. The cookies are a specific recipe by Dr. Siegal and baked in his own bakery in Miami. The cookies are not to be a meal but to be eaten whenever the individual is hungry and the individual must eat six cookies each day. The one meal and the six cookies added up to only 800 calories a day which is a low amount and not healthy. The individuals on the cookie diet must also drink eight glasses of liquid a day. The individual could drink coffee, or tea.
