04.12.18

Those trendy diets are probably bad for you

Alexis Eichelberger / Staff Writer

Fad diets have been attracting the attention of Americans for many years.

Some use a clever phrase or a simple set of rules for the diet to be appealing. Others enlist the help of celebrity spokespeople to convince the public of their validity. In most cases, they promise quick and dramatic weight loss results that will leave those who follow them feeling and looking better.

Unfortunately, many popular diets often fail those who use them in more ways than one. In many cases, they fail to include all the components of a healthy and balanced diet or are unable to create long-term results and improve overall health.

Deborah Murray, an associate lecturer of nutrition, has noticed the paleolithic and ketogenic diets becoming especially popular recently. The paleolithic or “caveman” diet includes only foods that humans might have eaten thousands of years ago, such as lean meats, fruits, vegetables and nuts, and excludes foods only made possible by modern farming practices, such as dairy products and grains. The ketogenic diet encourages participants to eat a diet that consists of mostly fats, some protein and very few carbs to achieve a higher metabolism.

Murray said although many people seem to be attracted to those kinds of diets, many times they aren’t healthy methods of losing weight and keeping it off. It’s common for fad diets to omit whole food groups or macronutrients, which can create an unbalanced intake of food.

“The piece about omitting the food group … that is super problematic,” Murray said. “We’re not nourishing that individual with the six classes of essential nutrients is the real biggie. And because they’re doing that and there are big holes in the diet, it’s hard to sustain that over time.”

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Quinoa and quinoa salads have become a more popular grain option than brown rice. Certain foods like quinoa have outshined other foods based on popularity and attractiveness in mainstream nutrition.

Despite the common unhealthiness of fad diets, Murray said many people continue to flock to them because they see them as quick and easy fixes.

“The message of health and weight loss over time can be kind of boring, frankly,” she said. “We know there’s some individual differences. But dropping calories consistently and trying to make small lifestyle changes over time is just kind of a boring message. It takes work over time, really redefining and looking at the work that’s involved.”

Stephen Adams, owner of Odyssey Nutrition, 30 E. State St., sometimes encounters customers who come into his business while trying diets that involve cutting out major food groups.

Odyssey Nutrition sells Herbalife products, which are nutrition supplements added to foods and shakes to help people get all of their necessary nutrients each day.

Adams said, as a seller of Herbalife and an advocate for health, he doesn’t believe in or encourage extreme and unbalanced fad diets. Each macronutrient is necessary, as are the food sources they come from.

“To each his own is what I always say, and when people want help and results, that’s what we focus on,” Adams said. “We believe in living a healthy, active lifestyle. We believe in supplementation and helping your body get the extra nutrients. … We focus on consuming the right, healthy meals.”

Nutrition lecturer Jana Hovland worked in nutrition counseling before becoming a professor and now specializes in teaching the practice to students. She said in her experience, she has encountered people who tried or were interested in fad diets and often sees college students eager to try them.

“I think as a country, we’re often desperate for weight loss,” she said. “If you’re desperate, you may choose things that you’ve heard have worked or that you haven’t tried yet, so you’re going to try it because it’s out there.”

Hovland said the advice she gives to clients who seem frustrated with fad diets is to not only change their behavior, but to change their mindset to one that expects gradual change over time rather than instantaneous results.

“My advice is that it takes months or years for us to put on that weight, and it will take months or years to put off that weight,” she said. “The fad diet is tempting, and it can stimulate fast weight loss, but it’s hard to maintain that weight loss. More of a lifestyle change is more realistic for slow, gradual weight loss that you can keep off.”

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