By offering solutions in the short run only, they make matters worse

Nov 23, 2009 21:31 GMT  ·  By
Fad dieting is extremely detrimental overall, contributing to obesity crisis, BSG President warns
   Fad dieting is extremely detrimental overall, contributing to obesity crisis, BSG President warns

Countless women have made a habit out of going on a quick diet if they want to lose a couple of pounds in time for one event or another. These diets are usually based on limiting food intake to the point of having the slimmer subsist on one meal a day or, even worse, a handful of seeds or a few fruit. The problem with said diets is that they’re actually making the obesity crisis worse, Top News informs.

Professor Chris Hawkey, president of the British Society of Gastroenterology, warns that fad diets might seem like an easy answer in case of an “emergency” – if one can refer to that to the need to drop a few pounds to fit into last year’s jeans in time for a party – but, in the long run, they’re actually doing too much harm already. By not approaching the problem of overeating and / or eating unhealthy foods from the correct perspective, they lead to yo-yo-ing weight and, this way, play an active part in the increase in numbers of overweight and obese patients.

In the UK alone, for instance, by 2050, only 1 in 10 people will be of healthy weight – which is to say 9 out of 10 will be overweight or morbidly obese, the BSG President says. “Doctors have been criticizing fad diet for many years now, blaming the extreme nature of these routines which people find difficult to adhere to, and then end up eating even more unhealthy foods. Some of these diets cause people to eat too much of a certain food type, which actually makes them gain weight,” Top News says of Prof. Hawkey’s warning.

“The problem facing our society is not the content of our diet but it’s the quantity we are consuming and the consequential impact on obesity. We need to do away with quirky diets and get people to realize what will keep them healthy in the long run. Food has been shrouded in myths and fairy tales since time immemorial. But what’s important is to recognize that, despite the popularity of fad diets, we are losing a grip on the fight with obesity,” Professor Hawkey says.

Among the potentially most dangerous fad diets, currently very popular with both men and women, is the so-called rawism trend, which implies that food should be served uncooked, otherwise aliments lose their nutritional attributes, the grapefruit diet, and the alkaline diet, which states eating regimes should fit the slimmer’s blood type.