Fad diets : the truth ?

By Lovely Ranganath, Dietician, Al Zahra Hospital, Sharjah & Al Zahra (Pvt) Medical Centre, Dubai.

Pick up any magazine and you surely would come across a ‘revolutionary’ diet plan, which claims of rapid, dramatic weight loss and the resulting pencil-thin figure leads us to think that this latest diet is the miracle we are looking for! So, what’s so special about the regimes used by the stars, and more importantly, how effective are they? 

The Atkins Diet : This is based on restricting carbohydrate intake to as little as 15 grams per day and indulging in high-protein and high-fat foods. Three important studies in 2003 showed that the first stage of the diet is consistent with most weight-loss plans, but in the long term the diet and weight loss are both difficult to maintain. The jury is still out on the long-term safety of the regime and nutritionists are concerned about the increased risk of nutrient deficiencies, constipation, and ketosis (the breakdown of body tissues to produce energy) as well as kidney and heart health in Atkins devotees. 

The ‘Bit of your body you hate’ Diet : If you are unhappy with your hips, thighs, buttocks, a diet is out there promising to make them smaller, firmer, and more toned. You can even follow a diet claiming to give you the same effect as a face-lift in a weekend! Most of these diets give you a rigid set of rules to follow, with a whole list of foods you must eat at certain times of the day in certain combinations to release the ‘special’ powers of the nutrients. These diets often advocate foods that have a high protein and vitamin content, providing a tentative link to improving your skin’s elasticity or rebuilding new skin cells. Protein and vitamins are used to make new skin cells, but that’s where the magic ends – no food can target a specific area of your body to work on. If you lose weight you may find your least favourite ‘wobbly’ bit becomes smaller, but the only way it will ever get firmer and more toned is through plain hard exercise. 

Although most of these targeted diets aren’t likely to do any harm, they’re more of a marketing ploy to sell magazines and newspapers than a breakthrough in nutritional science. The basic principles of the diets are the same: reduce calorie intake and increase calorie expenditure through exercise to lose weight, but that doesn’t make a very sexy headline! 

The Blood Group Diet : The blood group diet suggests that eating certain foods according to your blood type rids your body of toxins and fat. The diet varies for each blood group, so, for example, a person with an O blood type can eat organic seafood, red meat, soy milk, and most fruits and vegetables. However, there is little if any scientific research to validate this.

Any weight loss on this diet is likely to be attributable to a simple reduction in calories rather than any supposed physiological response to food related to blood type. Apart from leaving you hungry most of the time, the blood group diet is pretty expensive and can lack fibre, essential fatty acids, and calcium unless you also eat fortified soy products. 

The Cabbage Soup Diet : Most of us spent our childhood loathing it, but now it’s touted as one of the hottest ingredients in the world of wonder diets! The humble cabbage, made into soup and eaten everyday in addition to fruit, vegetables, and occasionally meat, ensures rapid weight loss due to a very low calorie intake, rather than any magical properties of the cabbage. This diet  is dangerous to maintain over a long period. The removal of a limb is preferable to this regime for some rapid weight loss!

The Coconut Diet : Coconut oil contains92 per cent saturated fatty acids, but a high proportion of these are medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). MCTs are easily absorbed as immediate energy and so are commonly used in infant feeds and for feeding people following surgery or who are critically ill and can’t eat a normal diet. Because the MCTs in coconut oil provide such an instant energy, the theory is that they are less likely to be stored as fat, so they help you lose weight more easily. As well as coconut oil added to pretty much every food on the diet, the diet promotes the consumption of butter, cream, and full-fat milk as well as lots of meat and a daily dose of cod liver oil. 

If you follow the diet to the letter you eat around 2,500 calories a day. Bearing in mind that most women need to eat about 1,500 calories a day to lose 1kg per week it’s difficult to see how the coconut diet can work. Any weight loss is probably due to the diet being so filling that followers are unlikely to eat everything prescribed in a day. The high intake of animal fats as well as coconut oil, means that this diet could raise cholesterol levels; an important risk factor for heart disease. The coconut diet really does have all the hallmarks of a fad diet because it mainly concentrates on a single food. No food works in isolation, and the key to a healthy diet is variety-whether or not you’re trying to lose weight.

Detox Diets

Detox diets usually consist of fruit, vegetables, seeds, and herb-or fruit-infused water with limited wheat-free grains and oils. The range of detox plans are often sold on the pretence of their ‘cleansing health benefits’, but in truth the resultant and often dramatic weight loss is down to simple calorie restriction and is usually short-lived. Health professionals have genuine concerns about people frequently coming on and off detox plans, or following them for any length of time. Detox diets are nutritionally incomplete and rapid weight loss can exacerbate the yo-yo diet effect (rapid weight loss, with equally rapid weight gain).

Detoxing for a day or two is unlikely to do you any harm, but it should never be a permanent solution to weight control.

 Low Glycemic Diets

 The glyceic index(GI) and glycemic load(GL) are tools to measure the rate at which carbohydrates are absorbed as glucose into the bloodstream. The evidence suggests that controlling fluctuating blood sugars by including more low or ‘slow’ GI foods like pulses, new potatoes, and oats at mealtimes reduces food cravings and the high-calorie grazing that can lead to weight gain. Clinical data supports the use of low GI foods as part of a healthy diet and active lifestyle and show that as well as helping weight control in short-term studies, the risks of heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome (combined obesity, raised cholesterol, blood pressure and impaired glucose tolerance) may also be reduced.

Low glycemic diets are likely to be around for a long time …so watch this space.

Meal Replacement Diets

Meal replacements are portion-controlled products fortified with vitamins and minerals. You replace one or two meals with these liquid shakes or bars, allowing one ordinary low-calorie meal a day. this approach provides an energy intake in the region of 1,200-1,600 calories per day.

Meal replacements are as effective as traditional dietary treatments in the short term, with long-term weight maintenance. None of the research published to date suggests any adverse effects of using meal replacement diets.

At present it isn’t possible to predict who does best with this kind of approach. However, it seems a good option if you have tried to lose weight using more traditional dietary methods, or have difficulty finding time to prepare meals or understanding and controlling portion sizes.

Well, now you realize that the truth behind the headline was a big lie! So, what is the secret? The key is simplicity!! Following basic rules like eating low fat meals, making good food decisions in places like movie theaters, convenience stores, and even at friends’ homes to keep the fat out, learning to prepare easy and healthful low-fat meals at home, gently incorporating exercise into your lives…..learning to do these anywhere you are.

Photo courtesy: myhomedelivery.co.uk

Ms Lovely Ranganath, Dietician, M.Sc (Food Science & Nutrition), Dip. Fitness & Nutrition, Al Zahra Hospital, Sharjah and Al Zahra Medical Centre, Dubai will be regularly writing on Diet and Nutrition on womenone.org. 

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