Fad Diets

Sixty two percent of Americans are overweight. Obesity is shortly expected to pass cigarette smoking as the leading cause of preventable deaths in this country.

It is no wonder that fad diet books shoot to the best seller list in blink of an eye as we continue to look for quick fixes to our growing waste lines. Americans spend 30 BILLION dollars a year on weight loss, according to the American Dietetic Association. It is commonly known that one in three women is dieting at any given time. With that in mind fad diets can seem especially appealing because they promise quick, dramatic almost magical weight loss

After just two weeks on a fad diet, your metabolism can drop by 20 percent, causing a person's metabolic set point to be set permanently lower. This makes future weight loss much more difficult. Most fad diets don’t even address the essential role of exercise in any weight-loss routine. Few programs mention the fact that when you go on a diet, your metabolism immediately starts to slow down. The only way to reverse that trend is to exercise

Many fad diets call for the elimination of whole categories of foods but ignore the basic nutritional concept of portion size. No one ever gained weight from eating too many fruits and vegetables which is usually the first to go during fad diets.

In general, all Americans need to be aware of portion size, even those who are not looking to lose weight. Researchers say that Americans routinely underestimate how many calories they consume each day by as much as 25 percent. Busy lifestyles mean countless distractions, and we're turning into a nation that eats on the run, at our desks, or in front of the television. Portions are difficult to gauge when our attention is divided between take-out Chinese and the six o'clock news

At the same time, fast-food chains compete for our business by “super sizing”. Restaurants are using larger plates laden with more food to assure customers they're getting their money's worth. How much food we do or do not eat is ultimately up to us. We've simply forgotten when to say when, and so lost sight of a fundamental concept of everyday nutrition: the serving size

Be wary of fad diets. There's a reason why they sound too good to be true -- because they are.

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