There is no single definition of what FAD DIET is. A fad diet is a diet that becomes popular for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements. It is also called as “popular diet” or “diet cult”.
Some of the fad diet involve eliminating necessary nutrients that your body needs. While other involve eliminating dairy. Some eliminate certain foods at specific times of the day. It consists of unusual, expensive and unnecessary food products and ingredients. Fad diets are often highly restrictive. Often these diets aren’t well researched.
TYPES OF FAD DIET:
- THE PALEO DIET:
It revolves around the food that our ancestors are thought to have hunted. It emphasizes on natural and not processed foods which involves meat, poultry, seafood, fruit, vegetables and nuts.
- THE FLEITARIAN DIET:
A flexitarian follow a plant based diet but occasional eats meat when the heart urges.
- KETOGENIC DIET:
It is a low carb, moderate protein, very high fat diet plan which involves cutting out key food groups. Some people have a medical need for a ketogenic diet to control epilepsy or other long-term conditions.
- THE RAW FOOD DIET:
This involves consuming unprocessed plant-based foods in their raw state to retain the enzymes and vitamins that can be destroyed through cooking.
PROS OF FAD DIET:
- It is effective in losing weight. As per research done by scientists from Tufts-New England Medical Center, fad diets can lead to a weight loss between 4.6 to 7.3 pounds within a year.
- Fad diet comprises of plenty of fruits and vegetable in a range of meal plans.
- Fad diet improves not only physical health but also one’s emotional health.
CONS OF FAD DIET:
- Fad diet users lose weight very quickly. Losing weight healthy but if it happens too quickly, it may lead to various side effects.
- It puts one’s health at risk as the amount of nutrients and calories to be consumed is restricted.
- Fad diet have low adherence.
ONE COMMON THING ABOUT FAD DIET:
All fad diets have one thing in common: They propose a temporary solution for many people’s lifelong problem. Once the diet is stopped, the lost weight is usually regained quickly. Fad diets does not focus on lifestyle modification and these diets aren’t sustainable throughout ones life.
Even losing weight has to be done in the right way. The meal plans incorporated in fad diets are good. But, the goal of losing weight will be done better if it is combined with total lifestyle change.
