Quick fix diets: the good, bad and ugly
Kristen Miller
Issue date: 1/18/07 Section: Features
There is also the Grapefruit Diet. This diet is 12 days on and two days off. The diet outlines a specific menu and instructs the dieter to never eliminate anything from that menu. There is a strict set of rules. The dieter must eat until they are full and can't eat anymore, cut down on caffeine, eliminate desserts, white vegetables, and bread from their diet, and not eat between meals.
The grapefruit is not supposed to be left out of any meal because it helps start the fat burning process.
According to everydiet.org, the Grapefruit Diet is really just a Very Low Calorie Diet with a grapefruit thrown in at every meal. This diet is also not recommended.
The most popular diet, according to everydiet.org, is the Three Day Diet. This is a short term diet where weight is lost and then quickly gained back.
This is also called a yo-yo diet and according to the New England Journal of Medicine, people who lose weight quickly and then gain it back increase their risk for heart disease.
The newest and maybe the most unique fad diet is the Cookie Diet. This diet says a person will lose 15 pounds in a month with the help of specially formulated cookies that suppress hunger. The Cookie Diet has a specific diet menu. Dieters are along allowed one meal a day. That meal can be six ounces of chicken, turkey, fish, or seafood with one cup vegetables. Red meat isn't allowed. The rest of the diet is six cookies each day. A person can eat a cookie whenever they are hungry but they have to eat all six cookies by the end of the day. The diet only allows 800 calories.
According to ABC News, critics of this diet believe it gives too little calories and lacks nutrition that people need because it eliminates vegetables and fruits that have essential vitamins and minerals.
While these fad diets seem quirky and possibly a quick fix for a bulging belly, there are dangers when it comes to using fad diets in order to shed some pounds.
According to the American Heart Association there are several reasons why using fad diets isn't a good idea. First, the diets don't provide good nutrition that comes along with eating a balanced diet with a variety of foods. Many diets limit someone to only a few foods they are allowed to eat. Secondly, many fad diets claim a "super food" that really doesn't exist.
People should eat in moderation from a large amount of food types, according to the American Heart Association. And finally, according to the American Heart Association, fad diets get monotonous and people hardly stay on them for long periods.
Maybe the resolution at the top of the list is to lose weight and get in shape. But sometimes the quick fixes aren't really the healthiest way to go.
Reach Kristen at
kristen_miller77@eku.edu
The grapefruit is not supposed to be left out of any meal because it helps start the fat burning process.
According to everydiet.org, the Grapefruit Diet is really just a Very Low Calorie Diet with a grapefruit thrown in at every meal. This diet is also not recommended.
The most popular diet, according to everydiet.org, is the Three Day Diet. This is a short term diet where weight is lost and then quickly gained back.
This is also called a yo-yo diet and according to the New England Journal of Medicine, people who lose weight quickly and then gain it back increase their risk for heart disease.
The newest and maybe the most unique fad diet is the Cookie Diet. This diet says a person will lose 15 pounds in a month with the help of specially formulated cookies that suppress hunger. The Cookie Diet has a specific diet menu. Dieters are along allowed one meal a day. That meal can be six ounces of chicken, turkey, fish, or seafood with one cup vegetables. Red meat isn't allowed. The rest of the diet is six cookies each day. A person can eat a cookie whenever they are hungry but they have to eat all six cookies by the end of the day. The diet only allows 800 calories.
According to ABC News, critics of this diet believe it gives too little calories and lacks nutrition that people need because it eliminates vegetables and fruits that have essential vitamins and minerals.
While these fad diets seem quirky and possibly a quick fix for a bulging belly, there are dangers when it comes to using fad diets in order to shed some pounds.
According to the American Heart Association there are several reasons why using fad diets isn't a good idea. First, the diets don't provide good nutrition that comes along with eating a balanced diet with a variety of foods. Many diets limit someone to only a few foods they are allowed to eat. Secondly, many fad diets claim a "super food" that really doesn't exist.
People should eat in moderation from a large amount of food types, according to the American Heart Association. And finally, according to the American Heart Association, fad diets get monotonous and people hardly stay on them for long periods.
Maybe the resolution at the top of the list is to lose weight and get in shape. But sometimes the quick fixes aren't really the healthiest way to go.
Reach Kristen at
kristen_miller77@eku.edu
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