What Are The Dangers Of Fad Dieting?
- Aug 18, 2024
- 5 min read
Written by Lauren Dorman, Registered Dietitian
Lauren Dorman is known as a game-changing Registered Dietitian. She is the founder of Don't Diet Dietitian and Schools, Master Food and Mood. She is a speaker, and expert in Nutrition, Food Psychology, and Emotional Eating. She developed The Nine to Nourished Experience, 9 core strategies to refuel one's relationship with food, body, and brain.
Have you tried all kinds of diets, supplements, and meal plans but still feel far from achieving your health goals? You assumed and trusted that if you did the program, it would change you. You expected that it would make you feel happy, confident, and calm.
They told you it would be easy.
They told you it would bring results—specific, positive results.
They told you that you would lose weight and keep it off—this time for good.
But that didn’t quite happen, did it?
The reality is that fad diets promise too much yet don’t deliver. Here are some reasons why—and the red flags in any diet plan to watch out for:
Does it sound or look too good to be true? For instance: “Magic diet pills found to be 100% effective!” Detox diet? Before-and-After photos?
In fact, “too good to be true” is almost always simply not true. Be on the lookout for promotions of secret or magic solutions that promise success with minimal effort instead of focusing on long-term lifestyle changes. The truth is that the body’s organs have their own system to remove toxins, so a detox diet might initially appear to be working but won’t ultimately be effective. Before-and-After photos are only appearance-focused rather than health-focused. Instead, you can think of the image as more of a Before-and-During photo, since the person is still living their life. Photos are also easy to embellish or even fabricate, and a single image does not indicate that the product will work for you in the same way—everyone is different. You therefore should not consider such photos as hard evidence. In addition, a one-program-fits-all approach generally does not take into consideration specific medical conditions, nor does it address social or psychological factors.
When it comes to nutrition and health information, we must be particularly careful. While there is an abundance of nutrition information out there, much of it is not quality- and evidence-based. Every single day I find myself having to debunk these types of myths. The diet industry is the only industry in the world that profits from customer failure. It profits from cultivating self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy. The psychological effects of calorie restriction include anxiety, depression, mood swings, constant hunger, binge-eating behaviors, social isolation, an increased preoccupation with food, and the activation of brain-reward systems to food (with food being extremely appealing). The act of dieting can create stress, overwhelm, and suppressed emotions.
Our diet and wellness cultures have merged, leading us to believe a lot of harmful information surrounding fad diets so that they can gain repeat customers. If the nutrition advice you’ve acquired is not from a Registered Dietitian, be wary of Red Flag Fad Diets. Keep in mind, too, how important it is that your diet (not dieting, but the way that you eat) meets the needs of your everyday lifestyle.
The diet/wellness industry does not take hormones and body physiology into account. First, the hungry brain decreases its satiety hormone, called leptin, signaling that you are full and nourished. The hunger hormone known as ghrelin is what stimulates your appetite and affects your food intake, impacting your feeling of fullness. So, after losing weight through calorie restriction, leptin levels may drop, which could lead to a greater appetite, food fixation, and regained weight. Simply put, the diet industry is not concerned about whether weight-loss programs will work in the long term. Thus, it becomes a vicious cycle, with many ending up weighing more than they did before they started and developing other problems because of jumping from one fad diet to the next. It is well documented that more than 85% of people regain the weight that they lost through dieting.
Fad dieters who yo-yo have an increased risk of stroke, diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver, high blood pressure, and elevated cortisol levels. Once individuals discover how destructive dieting can be, they are able to learn how to say a firm “no” to diets, shifting their mindsets to approach nutrition and health in a more realistic, flexible, long-term way.
Perhaps such strategies appealed to you because, for instance, they promised quick weight loss—but they also provided a false sense of hope. You know your life, values, and goals better than anyone else. If you try too hard, you’ll often end up worse off than before you started. If your brain is not feeling calm and confident, it will make unhelpful decisions. Fad dieting is not solution-focused, nor does it take into consideration basic foundations such as behaviors, brain wiring, emotional coping, regulating skills, beliefs, vision, and mindset. We go further by pacing ourselves, as patience gives way to steady progress, driving the process into action. Practice doesn’t make perfect—but it does make progress! Everyone needs to find what works best for them as individuals. There is no secret solution because our eating behaviors are complex—no one size fits everyone.
Many people tend to overcomplicate nutrition. Let’s focus on simplifying nutrition and health by promoting behavior change and self-care activities. Healthy eating can and should incorporate a variety of foods, such as those that are nutrient-dense and those that are not. In addition, focus on how you feel when eating certain foods and what these different foods do for your body. Healthy behaviors include eating mindfully, hydrating adequately, getting enough sleep, consuming nutrient-dense foods, striving for a colorful plate, managing stress better, engaging in self-reflection, learning how to cope with various emotions, and incorporating joyful movement.
Nutrition is a science, food is a behavior, and behaviors are thoughts and feelings being acted out. This involves a whole-person approach. A Registered Dietitian is an expert in nutrition science who can help navigate nutrition misinformation, teach sustainable health habits, and focus on a self-care behavioral approach with food.
Combatting fad diets and nutrition misinformation will be an ongoing effort. Be sure the information you’re seeking is from credible sources, and steer clear of anything that raises red flags.
Lauren Dorman, Registered Dietitian
Lauren Dorman is a dedicated Registered Dietitian, helping both children and adults to address the real root solution that enables them to feel more calm, confident, and empowered around food, body, mind, and self. She is the creator of the Nine to Nourished Experience, 9 effective ingredients that lay the foundation to create a satisfying relationship with food that will allow you to thrive. For those who think they have "tried everything," healing at the root cause can shift all areas of life. Her mission: sustainable success is all about tending to a process that feels good to you.
