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Malia Adams

ENC 1102

17 April, 2019

The Truth Behind Fad Diets: Helping or Hurting your Body

The topic of fad diets has always been an interest to me for many of reasons. My mom

has been a Nutritionist and Personal Trainer for over 18 years now which has made healthy

eating and exercise an important part of my life. Although I was surrounded by a healthy home I

still struggled with an eating disorder and other health issues I was born with involving my

kidneys. I have always been insecure of my weight and how I look. The way I dealt with it was

by trying to reduce what I ate, cut out carbs and sometimes only drink water or liquids.

Unfortunately, as I did these things my kidneys struggled with negative side effects. Going

further into the research behind fad diets and finding the truth is important to me because no one

else should impair their health for a diet that may not be doing the justice that is promised.

Fad Diets are some of the most popular and used diets each year. The definition of a Fad

Diet is a diet that gains popularity within a certain time (similar to fashion fads). These diets

promises rapid weight loss, a healthier lifestyle or even a longer life. They are also often

promoted for their need for little effort and producing a “quick fix”. Fad diets are used constantly

by people all over the world, but are they actually as healthy as they claim to be? When most

people want to lose weight they want it off for good, do fad diets help that happen?

Many different studies and researches done on whether or not these diets work and which

is best for the human body, but the outcomes tend to be different depending on the diet used. As
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of 2019 71% of America set their New Years Goal to be on a Diet or Eat Healthier (Peter

Economy), making it the number one goal of this year. As people start the year out with this goal

in mind they tend to look up the best diet to help them lose weight the fastest or easiest and that

is where fad diets pop up. The studies done on these diets grab the attention of a large audience,

not just those using the diets but Scientists, Personal Trainers, Nutritionists, Chefs etc. These

people look into what is popular in the food world and try to match up with it. There are so

many restaurants and food brands who are trying to make foods that focus on meeting popular

fad diet needs.

This research focuses on four different fad diets, some of the most popular and frequently

used fad diets: Atkins, Keto, Weight Watchers and Juice Fasting. What makes these frequently

used diets fad diets is that they require cutting out at least one of the main food groups (carbs,

fats, dairy, sugars etc.), it will promise a weight loss of up to 5 lbs per week, the diet gained

popularity quickly, and exercise is a minimum requirement. All the diets being followed promote

these things; Atkins is a low carb, high protein and fat diet as well as the Ketogenic Diet, Weight

Watchers is a point system/calorie log diet and Juice Fasting cuts out up to all of your meals in a

day for up to 10 days. When cutting out valuable food sources in your diet this can mess with

your body a lot. It is important to have all of the right nutrients in your body at all time. There

are seven different nutrients that are essential for your body which are water, carbohydrates,

Protein-Amino Acids, Fat, Vitamins, Minerals and Omega 3- Fatty Acids (Wellness Daily),

some diets will ask you to cut some of these things out which can slowly shut down your body.

The most common thing to get cut out is carbohydrates which people think of as a bad thing but

if you eat the right kind it is very important for your body to intake them for energy.
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Figure 1: The photo shows a visual of the needed nutrients for your body as stated in the

paragraph above. This is included to show all the important nutrient need in the human body, that

fad diets ask you to take out.

Low Carb Diets: Atkins & Keto

Atkins is a no/low carb, high protein and fat diet that was created in 1960’s by a

Cardiologist of the name Robert C. Atkin. Consuming minimum carbs with high proteins and

fats tricks your body to make you feel fuller faster and longer. When stating it like that it seems

to be a legit and logical diet to follow but when asking you to only consume 20 grams of carbs a

day which is equivalent to a small banana, half a bagel or even a cup of blueberries. The average

carbohydrates one should consume in a day is 225-325 grams per day which provides 45-65

percent of a 2000 calorie diet. There are carbs hidden in many foods so without even knowing
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you may be consuming more than 20 grams throughout your meals just through fruits and

veggies.

The Ketogenic Diet also known as Keto is a diet practically the same as Atkins. It is

another low carb, high protein and fat diet. It originates from the 1920’s, which may shock many

people as it has become extremely popular and well known again in just the past few years.

While Atkins claims that proteins and fats help keep you fuller longer, Keto states its high fat

(cheese, avocado, fatty fish, nuts, etc.) content is to help give you the energy that you are losing

from carbs and the high protein is to help you feel fuller and increase fat burning in your body.

Cutting out carbs in Keto (and Atkins) helps the body move through ketosis, hinse the name

Keto, which is a state where your body doesn't have enough glucose to burn to give you energy

so it starts burning stored fats instead. While going through this stage your body goes through

lots of changes and obstacles, which include but are not limited to: Bad breath, appetite

suppression, short term fatigue, digestive issues, Insomnia and more.

There are also long term consequences from cutting out carbohydrates so aggressively.

Once you feel you have successfully reached your goal and are done with the diet you tend to go

back to your old ways, which would be consuming at least 12 times the amount of carbs you are

consuming in Atkins and or Keto. When consuming little to no calories and then going back to

half your diet being carbs you tend to gain back almost twice the amount of weight you lost.

Doing this can also put people at the risk for compromised vitamin and mineral intake, as well as

potential cardiac, renal, bone and liver abnormalities. Sometimes they even hasten the onset of

type 2 diabetes due to low sugar content during the diet, then going back to a higher intake after.

Not only do you take on these very serious health issues, but within the first couple weeks of

going low/no carbs you can start to get feelings on depression, struggle with activities such as
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working out and become extremely constipated. The only way this diet may work long term is if

you stick to it but you will still struggle with lack of vitamin and mineral intake, and

compromising an important nutrient in your diet.

Figure 2: This photo is an example of constipation on low carb. You become very full, bloated

lazy and unenergized. 1

Juice Fasting: Cutting Out Almost All or All Solid Foods

The Juice Fasting Diet puts the worst toll on your body even though it is the shortest diet

being studied, lasting a maximum of ten days. This diet replaces two of three, or three of three

1
Received from https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/controversies on April 17, 2019
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meals a day with juice made of fresh fruits and vegetables. The diet promises to help you lose

weight fast, help cleanse your liver and even transform your intestinal health. Although this diet

may do everything promised if you stick to only consuming juices for ten days it can cause some

serious problems with in your body. Consuming only juices will cut out vital food groups and

nutrients needed which will cause harm to your body. Not consuming protein, healthy fats or

fiber will make you feel hungry, tired and sluggish. These juices can contain a lot of sugar as

well which can cause an energy dip, fatigue and additional sugar craving which in the end won’t

help your weight loss. When stopping the Juice Fast after ten days and being able to continue

with your normal diet you will be extremely hungry and gain your weight back just as fast do to

solid foods and carbs going back in to your body. In order to keep the weight off after this diet

you would have to continue to be extremely strict with your diet and pretty much only eat greens.

When searching further into the Juice Fasting there are many more negative effects

during and long term. You are cutting many valuable nutrients out of your body during this

process so it can do things like dry your skin out, make your hair fall out, you won’t have energy

to keep up with exercising and you may feel more stressed during the process. Long term this

can cause some serious metabolism problems due to the lack of nutrients your metabolism will

slow down leaving you bloated and constipated, which will make it hard to get back on track.

Juice Fasting is one of the diets I have actually done myself. This being said I only did it

for one day through a program called clean juice. Through my experience with this diet it was

not so negative. It did help me with bloating which made me feel lighter and more energized. I

also lost about 3 lbs, but that’s about it. Doing this for only one day is not negative at all from

my experience but the results only last a couple of days. Once you start eating again things tend

to always go back to normal.

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What’s Behind Apps and Programs: Weight Watchers

Weight Watchers is a whole different take on a fad diet. This diet is based off of a point

system which is more like calorie counting with an app. The Weight Watchers diet doesn't ask

you to cut out any valuable nutrients needed in your diet but it encourages you to focus on whole

foods including, fruits, vegetables and lean proteins. Members can choose any foods they want

as long as they stay under their daily smart limit, which makes this the most logical fad diet to

follow. The reason this may be the best to follow is because it doesn’t restrict you of any sort of

food group it just helps you eat in moderation. Where this diet can fall apart for people is having

to stay loyal and true to your points and what you eat, once you eat something bad it can throw

you off completely and you can start forgetting or not logging points so maybe there is no

evidence of that slice of cake you ate. When it comes to food and dieting it is very hard to make

an extreme change from what you usually eat to a strict diet which makes this diet both good and

bad. You are able to eat whatever you want just in moderation but usually once you taste

something you love you want more and more of it.

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Figure 3: This photo shows an example of weight watchers point system. 2

Experimental Study Based on Fad Diets

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Retrieved from www.pinterest.com/pin/511228995184717751/?lp=true on April 16, 2019
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After everything I have been researching I decided to follow an experimental study on

two of the four diets I researched. The study “Potential Long-Term Consequences of Fad Diets

on Health, Cancer, and Longevity: Lessons Learned from Model Organism Studies” By: (2007)

is based on the research published in June of 2007 by Wayne State University’s Institute for

Environmental Health Sciences. This Research was done because of the Increase in Obesity in a

time span of just ten years. The researchers wanted to find ways in which people can lose weight

and see the long term effects on the popular diets that promise weight lose. The study done by

Douglas M. Ruden, Ph.D.* Parsa Rasouli, BS Xiangyi Lu, Ph.D. is based on four different FAD

diets and the long term effects of each diet.

Researchers used 160 people to help them get their results in a four diet trial. The diets

used were Atkins (carbohydrate restriction), Zone (macronutrient balance), Weight Watchers

(caloric restriction), an Ornish (fat restriction); which Weight Watchers and Atkins are two that I

did some research on as well. Each Diet was assigned to a group of 40 people which helped

compare their results and the difference in long term effects. After months of studying and

observing the outcome of the research, it concluded in a way they weren’t hoping for. Their

conclusion for each diet was “Each popular diet modestly reduced body weight and several

cardiac risk factors at 1 year…, although increased adherence was associated with greater weight

loss and cardiac risk factor reductions for each diet group” (Ruden, et al. 248). Unfortunately,

after all that had been done it was realized that this study was not very well planned out “because

of the small number of people enrolled, the short time period for data, accumulation, and the low

participation rate of those enrolled...”(Ruden, et al. 248). This being said the results were tenuous

at best, making the researchers want to participate in a better more thawed out way in studying

weight loss and what may actually works.

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With the study ending so poorly they tried again in a way where everything takes place in

a lab, under their control. They remodel the study by focusing on three control groups of flies.

The control groups are separated by three diets which are high soy, high beef and Food Control,

these may not be specific fad diets but it is the typically the main idea behind them. As the study

went along researches gathered that on a high soy diet the fly got quite small, while on high beef

and food control they stayed the same. But when on high soy and high beef their life expectancy

dropped to 18 days while food control was at 24 days. As they continued their research they

concluded that “Using Drosophila nutrigenomics as a “Dietary Ames Test” promises to identify

potentially life-shortening or life enhancing fad diets, supplements, or drugs before they get

widespread use.” (Ruden, et al. 253). There was also evidence that some genes treat these diets

differently in different people which can cause positive and or negative effects on their body

long term. The authors states that the best and most healthy way in which to lose weight is to

have a well balanced and moderate diet.

With two separate experiments being ran in this study outline it helped me alot with

evidence and explanation towards my research. The study may not have been completely focused

on each diet that I have been researching but it does help state some facts on two of the four, and

general diets overall. This study was done to reach out to a large audience which makes it easier

and more reliable to use as a reference. It has drawn an audience of those who are interested in

losing weight, personal trainers, nutritionists and doctors. When using something that draws such

a large crowd and important people involved in the topic, I am able to use this piece confidently

as a reference.

The Truth about Fad Diets

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The Atkins, Keto, Weight Watchers and Juice Fasting diets are some of the most popular

and over used fad diets out there which can be very dangerous for our society and their health. It

amazes how some of these diets were created decades ago and they are still being used today

even with this horrible truths behind them. Cutting out any sort of needed nutrients for your

body to function 100% correctly is an automatic nono for any sort of diet. It is important to keep

your body full of nutrients for it to work the way it needs to keep you happy, healthy and clean.

All of these diets can affect you long term whether it be gut health, immune health, heart health

and more. Therefore the true best and most healthy way for everyone to lose weight and keep it

off is to eat a well balanced and moderate diet because this is not a part of any diet plan, you are

able to splurge if you want on something that may not be the healthiest but still eat in moderation

the rest of the day.

Works Cited
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“Atkins Diet: What's behind the Claims?” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education

and Research, 16 Aug. 2017,

www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/atkins-diet/art-20048485.

Chamberlain, Claire. “The Juice Diet: a Health Fix or Just Plain Crazy?” Netdoctor, Netdoctor, 1

Feb. 2019, www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-eating/a25568057/the-juice-diet/.

Economy, Peter. “10 Top New Year's Resolutions for Success and Happiness in 2019.” Inc.com,

Inc., 1 Jan. 2019,

www.inc.com/peter-economy/10-top-new-years-resolutions-for-success-happiness-in-

2019.html.

Greger, Michael. “Long Term Side Effects.” Atkins Facts - Massive Health Risk,

www.atkinsfacts.org/Long_Term_Side_Effects.htm.

Gunnars, Kris. Health Line, 9 Jan. 2018,

www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-many-carbs-per-day-to-lose-weight#section1.

projects, Contributors to Wikimedia. “Human Physiology/Nutrition.” Wikibooks, Open Books for

an Open World, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 26 Oct. 2018,

en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Human_Physiology/Nutrition.

Ruden, Douglas M., et al. Potential Long-Term Consequences of Fad Diets on Health, Cancer,

and Longevity: Lessons Learned from Model Organism Studies. Technology in Cancer

Research and Treatment, 2 June 2007,

pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6869/afd038355657dd763dbab16cf2b1674acf21.pdf.

“Top 17 Low-Carb and Keto Controversies – Diet Doctor.” Diet Doctor, 9 Apr. 2019,

www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/controversies.
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“Weight Watchers Calculator; Use This Simple Weight Watchers Points | Recipes - Weight

Watchers.” Pinterest, 10 Apr. 2019,

www.pinterest.com/pin/511228995184717751/?lp=true.

White, Ross. “7 Essential Nutrients Your Body Needs.” Wellness Daily, 4 June 2018,

www.wellnessdaily.com.au/health/7-essential-nutrients-your-body-needs.

“13 Scary Things That Might Happen to Your Body on a Juice Cleanse.” BT.com, 4 May 2018,

home.bt.com/lifestyle/health/diet/13-scary-things-that-might-happen-to-your-body-on-a-

juice-cle anse-11363970332771.