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 Flip through a magazine or switch channels on TV and within a few minutes you are bound to come across some celebrity touting the next big thing in diets. From the good old Cabbage Soup Diet to the latest Dukan Diet, fad diets come and go as regularly as the seasons. With promises of instant weight loss and foolproof results, it’s no surprise that many people fall prey to these scams or fad diets.

Any doctor will recommend some form of diet if you want to lose weight. In order to ensure a steady and long-term weight loss, you need to consume lesser calories than you expend on a daily basis. In addition to this, a regular exercise routine and other lifestyle changes serve to maximize the benefits of a healthy eating plan. So how do you recognize a fad diet then? Well, one rule of thumb to go by is that if any diet or meal plan sets an unrealistic or immediate weight loss goal, it’s most probably a dud diet. A healthy diet should lead to a weight loss of maximum one pound a week. Any loss greater than this can be harmful to the body. While some fad diets may bring results, these are always short lived. Once you resume eating normally, the weight returns and often brings along with it a few more pounds than before. Fad diets also tend to be very low in calories and call for drastic changes to the way one eats. Healthy nutritious food products such as whole grains, fresh fruit or ‘good’ fats are often shunned by these diets and can lead to malnutrition and deficiencies in the long run. Other possible repercussions to fad dieting include weight gain, altered metabolism, and hair and muscle loss. Doesn’t quite sound so tempting now does it? Here’s a run down of the top five fad diets currently doing the rounds.

• The Blood Type Diet: This diet trend states that you should eat foods according to your blood type. For example, if you are Type O, you should include more meat into your diet as people with O-type blood are meant to be hunters. Type As on the other hand are gatherers and should restrict their diet to vegetarianism for the best weight loss results. While there is no scientific evidence to prove this theory, the diet has caught on all around the world.
• The Dukan Diet: Made famous by a rash of supermodels and actors, this is a complicated diet consisting of four distinct phases. The first ten days you are to eat only proteins and avoid all carbohydrates and consequently cut out various other food groups as the diet progresses. Experts warn against an excess consumption of protein as this can lead to bad breath, constipation and kidney disorders.
• The Baby Food Diet: While there is no denying that you are bound to lose weight if all you eat is pureed and mashed up food, you are also courting possible malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies along with a complete lack of taste and enjoyment of eating.
• Ketogenic Enteral Nutrition Diet: Forget meal replacements and diet pills, the KEN or Ketogenic Enteral Nutrition Diet involves liquid proteins fed into your stomach via a nasogastric tube. Completely lacking in nutrients and fiber, there are a host of side effects and risks associated with this drastic method of weight loss.
• The Alcorexia /Drunkorexia Diet: And you thought you’ve heard it all before.  The Alcorexia diet entails on increasing your alcohol intake and reducing your intake of calories through meals. The FDA went into a tizzy when this diet became public as it deprives the body of all vital nutrients and may cause alcohol poisoning or death. On the good side you will be skinny, on the bad side – you may be dead!
  

References:

1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration and National Association of Attorneys General. FDA/CFSAN The Facts About Weight Loss Products and Programs.

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